Unsolved - In the News

DNA Tests On Woman's Body Found 31 Years Ago

2012-01-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

SkyNews - UK

DNA Tests On Woman's Body Found 31 Years Ago

The wax reconstruction of the head of the woman found in the North York Moors National Park
10:38am UK, Tuesday January 24, 2012

Gerard Tubb, North of England correspondent

North Yorkshire Police are hoping advances in DNA profiling will help solve the mystery of a woman whose naked body was found by a remote roadside 31 years ago.
In August 1981 detectives were informed about the remains of the 35- to 40-year-old by a well-spoken man who phoned Ripon police station.

He told officers where to look for the body but said he could give no further details for reasons of national security.

No clothing or jewellery was found with the remains, which had lain undisturbed for up to two years close to Sutton Bank, near Thirsk.

The woman was buried at Malton Cemetery after an 18-month investigation, which failed to identify her despite the commissioning of the UK's first wax facial reconstruction based on the shape of her skull.

More than three decades on, 20 police staff worked through the night in a forensic tent erected over the woman's grave as the remains were removed so samples could be taken from the teeth and a thigh bone.

Scientists at the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Wetherby will use techniques unavailable to the original investigators to isolate DNA, which they will then try to match to samples in the national DNS database and to four families identified as potential relatives.

The body will be reinterred on Wednesday but the results of the tests, which could spark a murder inquiry, will not be known for four weeks.

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16155152

Missing Milford woman's sister still has hope of finding her, after 24 years

2012-01-26T15:47:00.001-05:00

Elizabeth Kovalik

CT Bulletin - CT, USA

Missing Milford woman's sister still has hope of finding her, after 24 years

Published: Sunday, January 22, 2012

Special to the Bulletin

MILFORD — Jeanette Patton, 48, will never forget the day she brought her nephew to kindergarten for his first day of school.

There were numerous proud parents snapping pictures of their children, and while the day should have been joyous, it evoked profound sadness for Patton.

All she could think was that it should have been her sister, Elizabeth Kovalik, with the boy, her son, and not Patton. Patton will also never forget Nov. 13, 1987. That’s the date Kovalik, who was 28 years old, went missing from Milford.

Police say the search continues for Kovalik, but they have no idea what happened to her. They said there is no evidence Kovalik is dead, but they have no leads concerning her whereabouts.

Patton said when her sister went missing from her Barton Road residence 24 years, ago, she left behind a 3-year-old son. (more...)

Film about chilling S.A. case a hit at Sundance

2012-01-26T14:33:00.000-05:00

Nicholas Barclay

My San Antonio - TX, USA

Film about chilling S.A. case a hit at Sundance

Posted on 01/24/2012 by Jeanne Jakle
In honor of today’s Oscar nominations, I’m sharing some exciting S.A. movie news out of Sundance:

A thriller of a documentary film, which tells the true story of a con artist from France who impersonated a missing teenage boy in San Antonio, has been receiving strong buzz and glowing reviews.
Charlie Parker, an S.A. private investigator, is particularly excited about “The Imposter” (seen in Sundance movie poster above). And no wonder: He’s interviewed in the movie as the man who was instrumental in cracking the case. It tells the story of Frederic Bourdin, who, hearing of an unsolved case of an S.A. teen who had been missing since 1994, decided to assume his identity three years later so he could avoid jail.

Though he was in his early 20s at the time and had dark hair and brown eyes, Bourdin (seen at right in a photo from New Yorker story, “The Chameleon”) managed to impersonate the blond-haired, blue-eyed Nicholas Barclay, who would have been 16 at the time. His con worked well enough that the family of the boy accepted Bourdin into their homes for many months. (more...)

Police probe whether Oregon killer was connected to missing Skyway woman

2012-01-26T14:24:00.000-05:00

Virgina Rambus

KIROTV - WA, USA

Posted: 3:58 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23, 2012

Police probe whether Oregon killer was connected to missing Skyway woman

SEATTLE — The King County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in figuring out how a man serving a life sentence for murder may be connected to the disappearance of a woman in Skyway in 1985.

Virginia “Anne” Rambus, 19, was last seen on May 22, 1985, when she left her apartment in the 6800 block of South 123rd Street in Skyway to go to a party with an unknown friend, police said.

Detectives said they want to hear from anyone who may know of a connection between Rambus and Jesse Pratt, a convicted murder. (more...)

St. Charles police search home in missing child case from 1988

2012-01-26T14:11:00.003-05:00

Scott Kleeschulte

STLTODAY - MO, USA

St. Charles police search home in missing child case from 1988

BY SUSAN WEICH • sweich@post-dispatch.com > 636-255-7207 STLtoday.com | Posted: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 12:00 am
They got a search warrant. They used cadaver dogs. But they came up empty-handed.

A review of the case files in the disappearance of 9-year-old Scott Kleeschulte had given St. Charles police investigators a glimmer of hope about solving the 23-year-old mystery.

Their actions are a snapshot of the way these cases are handled. They get handed down from detective to detective. They aren't allowed to go cold.

St. Charles Police Lt. Mike Akers declined to say specifically what information spurred the most recent search, which happened at the end of November at a home in Kleeschulte's neighborhood. Akers would say only that it had come from a comment in an old interview.

"We feel now that maybe this person wasn't very reliable or wasn't giving us good information," he said.

Neighbors said authorities drilled holes through the concrete in the garage and other areas around the home in the 3400 block of Leverenz Drive. Akers said the dogs did not detect anything.

Kleeschulte has been missing since June 8, 1988. He was last seen not far from his home walking near a wooded area known as "The Trails" just before a fierce thunderstorm swept through the area. (more...)

Joseph Naso accused in Dylan fan's disappearance

2012-01-25T20:32:00.001-05:00

SFGate - CA, USA

Joseph Naso accused in Dylan fan's disappearance

Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer

San Francisco Chronicle January 13, 2012

Friday, January 13, 2012

A man already accused of murdering four Northern California women may have been involved in two other killings, as well as the disappearance of a woman last seen on her way to a Bob Dylan concert in San Francisco, the lead investigator in the case testified Thursday.

Detective Richard Brown of the Nevada Department of Public Safety said at a preliminary hearing in San Rafael that investigators searching 78-year-old Joseph Naso's safe deposit box had found photographs of two unidentified women who appeared to be dead.

Brown said the photos, depicting the women from the waist down, showed that their skin was discolored in a manner characteristic of dead bodies. The women were dressed in underwear and high heels, Brown said.

Naso, a Reno resident who is acting as his own attorney, sat expressionless as prosecutors presented large poster boards in Marin County Superior Court lined with photographs of the women.

Naso has pleaded not guilty to the murders of four women in Northern California: Roxene Roggasch in 1977, Carmen Colon in 1978, Pamela Parsons in 1993 and Tracy Tafoya in 1994. The body of Roggasch was found near Lagunitas, and Colon was found near Port Costa, while Parsons and Tafoya were both found in Yuba County. (more...)

'Cold Cases' Still Drive Fairfield Detectives

2012-01-25T19:22:00.000-05:00

The Daily Fairfield - CT, USA

'Cold Cases' Still Drive Fairfield Detectives

by Greg Canuel 01/18/12

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The popular term is “cold cases.” The name is even used to headline the page asking for information on the years-old cases on the Fairfield Police Department’s new website. Yet the term is somewhat of a misnomer. Police never drop an investigation, especially when the cases are as haunting as the three homicides left unsolved in Fairfield.

“They’re still very much active investigations,” said Sgt. Suzanne Lussier, the Fairfield Police Department’s public information officer. “We have detectives working on these cases even today.”

The three crimes involve victims with little in common: a newborn infant, an adult woman and a 17-year-old boy. Two happened in the same year — 1986 — and involved still unidentified victims. The third victim was Kyle Schneider, a kid well known and well liked at Fairfield Warde High School. But his murder has not proven any easier to solve in the three and a half years since it occurred.

The oldest case is also the grisliest. On March 14, 1986, Fairfield Police discovered the body of an infant in the woods surrounding Lake Mohegan. The body was mutilated, especially the baby’s face. Investigators believe the victim was just over a day old at the time of death.

Later tests showed that the cause of death was asphyxia, not the wounds to the face. Police believe the body was used in a religious ritual. “The injuries are not consistent with just the mere abandonment of a newborn baby,” then-Capt. Joseph Sambrook said at the time, as reported by The Associated Press. (more...)

Search to ID woman brings another one home

2012-01-25T19:18:00.000-05:00

Sealy News - TX, USA

Search to ID woman brings another one home

Posted: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 2:00 pm

Search to ID woman brings another one home By AMBER GONZALES, Staff Writer The Sealy News | 1 comment

The body of a 13-year-old girl murdered almost 38 years ago was finally returned home to her family in Beaumont.

But the remains found in a wooded area in Georgia may never have been identified if it weren’t for the body of another young woman found in Austin County in 1975.

Ima Jean Sanders was a white female who had been living in Warner Robins, Ga. who went missing in 1974. Her skeletal remains were found off of George Highway 96 in Peach County and were kept by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Crime Laboratory, though she could not be identified – until last month.

Last year, Austin County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Dennis King reopened a case that has kept one woman in his thoughts and prayers. An unknown woman, who he refers to as Pamela, was found in 1975 by two boys checking their fishing lines in the Brazos River, close to Sealy behind the Lazy River subdivision.

King, along with the Austin County sheriff, deputy sheriff, Sealy police chief and funeral home director, was called to the scene.

Investigators estimated the body had been in the river three to four days. The victim, now thought to be between the ages of 17 and 25, had no clothes or jewelry on when she was found and there were few clues to her identity. (more...)

Ithaca mother struggles to cope with son's disappearance

2012-01-24T17:05:00.000-05:00

Mark Ramin

The Ithaca Journal - NY, USA

Ithaca mother struggles to cope with son's disappearance

40-year-old vanished 10 years ago

7:20 PM, Jan. 17, 2012

Kathleen Bierce doesn't mind when people ask about her son, Mark Ramin, who disappeared a decade ago.

"Some people are hesitant to bring it up, but they shouldn't be," she said. "I like it that Mark is remembered." People ask about him all the time, and she, her daughter and other son think about Mark "if not daily, weekly," Bierce said.

"He's in our thoughts all the time," she said.

Ramin, of Ithaca, disappeared from the Pyramid Mall, now Shops at Ithaca, on Jan. 18, 2002. He was 40 years old at the time, and searchers from several agencies, including forest rangers, looked for him in the fields and wooded areas around the mall and Fall Creek.

Reviews of the case have revealed no new clues, and all leads are exhausted, said officials of the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office, the agency heading up the investigation. There's no evidence of foul play, they added. (more...)

Family holds out hope for missing brother

2012-01-24T16:31:00.000-05:00

Terry Lee Brown

Salisbury Post - MD, USA

Family holds out hope for missing brother

Sunday, January 15, 2012
By Nathan Hardin

For more than 11 years, Robert Brown has been searching for his brother.

As holidays, birthdays and Veterans Days roll by, Brown said he and other relatives are still holding out hope that Terry Lee Brown will find his way back home.

On Oct. 7, 2000, another brother dropped off Terry Brown at his home on Hillsboro Street.

It was mid-afternoon and Terry had finished doing repair work on a local church with two of his brothers.

He was last seen walking to his front door.

Terry’s disappearance has baffled authorities over the last decade.

One Salisbury officer said Terry “seemed to vanish.”

According to the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, nearly 10,000 people are reported missing in North Carolina each year.

Local officers say most Rowan County missing persons are found quickly and some may go unreported if officers find them before the reports are finished.

In 2011, local law enforcement agencies reported 74 missing person reports were filed.

Out of those, officers said, three are still open. Those cases are believed to be related to family disputes in which the people reported missing left on their own.

‘A hurting feeling’

Although he wore glasses, Terry didn’t have them with him when he disappeared. (more...)

Disposable camera brings new hope in case of unidentified skeleton

2012-01-24T16:07:00.000-05:00

VC Star - CA, USA

Disposable camera brings new hope in case of unidentified skeleton

By Adam Foxman
Ventura County Star
Posted January 21, 2012 at 7:01 p.m.

Found partly sunken in leafy ground at a secluded makeshift camp near Oxnard's northern coast, the unidentified man's skeleton was surrounded by what was likely everything he owned.

For six years, none of the roughly 50 found items led authorities to the man's identity. The mystery persisted as his dental X-rays and DNA profile provided no match.

Now, investigators at the Ventura County Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office are hoping a long-forgotten disposable camera will give this John Doe his real name — with a little help from the public.

Found near the skeleton, the 35 mm Fuji had 13 of its 24 exposures taken, but the film was not developed until several weeks ago.

The camera and a few Bibles found in the area were discovered recently by an Oxnard detective going through stored evidence, said Mónica Muñoz, an Oxnard police spokeswoman.

"It was probably just forgotten," Muñoz said. (more...)

KY Cold Case—Missing Person, Alyne Barrick

2012-01-24T15:35:00.001-05:00

Alyne Barrick

Surf KY - KY, USA

KY Cold Case—Missing Person, Alyne Barrick

Luke Short, SurfKY News Reporter

Jan 17 |10:36 AM
KENTUCKY (1/17/12)— The Kentucky State Police (KSP) investigate criminal activity and missing persons cases across the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky, and, in many instances, the information provided by individual citizens allows law enforcement officials to make important breakthroughs in difficult cases.

With this in mind, members of the KSP Post 3 in Bowling Green, KY are asking the public to help in finding a Kentucky resident, Alyne Barrick, who has been missing for over a decade.

As members of the KSP Post 3 explain, Alyne Barrick was last seen on Laurel Road in Mammoth Cave, KY (Edmonson County) on April 12th, 1996.

During the investigation of her disappearance, one of Barrick’s neighbors told investigators that they had spoken with her around 2pm that afternoon, which was a Friday.

After several failed attempts to contact Barrick throughout the weekend, the county Sheriff’s Department was contacted and forced entry into her home. Upon entry into her home on Monday, investigators reported that her bedroom look as if a struggle had recently taken place.

While Ms. Barrick was 60 years-old at the time of her disappearance, family members and close friends initially reported that she had been romantically involved with a younger man. Though it’s possible this information could be linked to the case, the identity of the younger man was never positively discovered.

At this time, detectives with the KSP are requesting help from the community or anyone who might have information regarding this incident. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the investigating officers, Lt. Shannon West ( Shannon.West@ky.govThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Sgt. Todd Combs ( ToddB.Combs@ky.govThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). You may also contact the officers by phone at (270) 782-2010.

http://surfky.com/index.php/component/content/article/51-top-news-for-all-sites/9559-ky-cold-casemissing-person-alyne-barrick

MISSING IN CONNECTICUT: Girl, 12, vanished from father’s Wallingford home in 1988

2012-01-23T20:26:00.001-05:00

Doreen Vincent

CT Post Chronicle - CT, USA

MISSING IN CONNECTICUT: Girl, 12, vanished from father’s Wallingford home in 1988

Published: Tuesday, January 17, 2012

By Ann DeMatteo

Special to the Post-Chronicle

Doreen Vincent disappeared from her father’s house in Wallingford June 15, 1988, never to be seen or heard from again.

With no body and no evidence, police can’t say for certain who may have been responsible for the 12-year-old’s disappearance.

On the night she disappeared, Doreen had a disagreement with her father, Mark Vincent. He told police she left through the front door of the house he had recently moved into on Whirlwind Hill Road, a rural section of Wallingford.

His wife at the time, the late Sharon Vincent Hutchins, told police it would have been impossible for Doreen to leave through the front door because it was locked with a deadbolt that required a key.

Police have never been satisfied with Mark Vincent’s account. “All we can say is his explanation of the circumstances surrounding her disappearance is suspect,” said Wallingford Detective Lt. Robert Flis. (more...)

New lead in 28-year-old cold case for Salt Lake police

2012-01-23T19:36:00.001-05:00

Debra Frost

KSL - UT, USA

New lead in 28-year-old cold case for Salt Lake police

January 18th, 2012

By Pat Reavy

SALT LAKE CITY — Frank Frost was 6 years old when his older sister disappeared.

For almost 28 years, no one from his family has heard from Debra Frost, who was 17 at the time she went missing. But Frank Frost said he has never given up hope that the mystery of what happened to his sister would be solved.

"I just refuse to give up," he said.

That patience and persistence in contacting authorities and news media may be paying off as Salt Lake City police have announced they have a new lead in the case.

Investigators say they received an anonymous tip about a year ago concerning the disappearance of Debra Frost who went missing on July 9, 1984. That tip lead them to Rock Springs, Wyo. where she had some sort of contact with police on July 21, 12 days after she was last seen, said Salt Lake Police Sgt. Josh Ashdown.

The nature of the contact with police is unknown, however, because police records from then have been purged, Ashdown said. (more...)

Woman's whereabouts still unknown after 27 years

2012-01-23T18:54:00.000-05:00

Terri Yingst Schlatter and her son Nathan

JC Online - IN, USA

Woman's whereabouts still unknown after 27 years

Jan. 18, 2012

By Roger Moon, The Times-Mail of Bedford

BEDFORD, Ind. (WTW) — Luella Potts holds on to her telephone number with great resolve.

She hopes someday those seven numbers behind her 812 area code might translate into the end of a nightmare.

She hopes the daughter she has neither seen nor heard from since February 1985 will dial that number to say, "Mom, I'm alive."

Some might ask Potts why her daughter, Terri Yingst Schlatter, would call home all these years later if she hasn't bothered to call the number so far.

Maybe she wouldn't. But Potts doesn't want to close that possible avenue of communication by changing her phone number.

"I will never get it changed," Potts said from her living room in Bedford. "When I came here (from a home in Springville), I had my phone transferred to my cell phone because of Terri. I will never have any other number."

The family's resolve to be accessible goes beyond Potts' determination. Yingst's brother David Potts, who is seven years younger and lives in Bedford, is as eager to hear from her as Potts is and vowed he would take his mother's phone number if anything happens to Potts. And the same resolve applies to Yingst's sister Kerri, also of Bedford. (more...)

'A Baffling Case:' 2 Sparta teens disappeared 12 years ago

2012-01-22T18:56:00.000-05:00

Jeremy Bechtel; Erin Foster

Knox News - TN, USA

'A Baffling Case:' 2 Sparta teens disappeared 12 years ago

By Jim Balloch
Knoxville News Sentinel
Posted January 15, 2012 at 4 a.m.

One person disappearing without a trace is mystery enough. When two vanish together, the case can be more than twice as difficult.

On April 3, 2000, Jeremy Bechtel, 17, and Erin Foster, 18, both of Sparta, attended a party. Later that night, around 10 p.m., they were seen together in her car, a sporty black Pontiac Grand Am.

Since then, there has been no trace of Bechtel, some unproven sightings of Foster, and no sign of her car.

"This is a case with two victims and many possibilities, but no crime scene and no forensic evidence," said White County Sheriff's Office Detective Chris Isom.

In 2005 and again in 2006, investigators actively searched for Foster in Pensacola, Fla., following reports that she was living and working there.

Closer to home, authorities have periodically dug up wells in White County. Those searches were sparked by a tip that came in several ears ago, reporting the pair had been murdered and their bodies dumped in a well or abandoned well site somewhere in White County. (more...)

Notorious Alaska killer gets small-screen treatment

2012-01-22T18:41:00.001-05:00

"Eklutna Annie"

Anchorage Press - AK, USA

Notorious Alaska killer gets small-screen treatment

Posted: Thursday, January 12, 2012

Notorious Alaska killer gets small-screen treatment By Scott Christiansen Anchorage Press

THE CAMERA TRACKS an actress running through the forest. She's frightened, and not dressed for the woods, wearing pumps and a short blue dress. A long bandage that once served as a blindfold has unraveled from her head, but she's in too much of a hurry to untangle it from her shoulders. Behind her in the woods, the camera captures a thin white man wearing horn-rimmed glasses. It's Bob Hansen, Alaska's most famous killer. He is dressed for the outdoors and he carries a rifle.

That's one of the recreated scenes from a true crime program produced for the TV channel Investigation Discovery about Hansen, Alaska's most infamous killer, and how he was brought to justice. Publicity for the show describes it as a one-hour "special" to air on ID Wednesday, January 25, under the title Alaska: Ice Cold Killers. (It's scheduled to lead into a new true crime series about serial killers called Dark Minds.) The publicists allowed the Press to screen via internet an early edit of the show that ran closer to two hours and was unfinished. (Note to producers: "Knik" has two syllables-add a hard "K" up front.) (more...)

Family speaks about loved one possibly being killed by convicted murderer

2012-01-22T18:14:00.000-05:00

Julie Lovett

Tri-Cities - NC, USA

Family speaks about loved one possibly being killed by convicted murderer

By: Lizz Marrs | TriCities.com
Published: January 13, 2012 Updated: January 13, 2012 - 10:37 PM

We're learning much more about a Johnson County cold case investigation into the 2001 disappearance of a woman who was possibly murdered by a suspected serial killer.

Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece says that Frederick Phillip Hammer told police in Ashe County, North Carolina that he killed 29-year old Julie Lovett---the subject of a 2001 missing persons case.

Hammer told police he picked Lovett up from a Johnson County bar and took her to Ashe County where he murdered and disposed of her body.

Reece says Hammer confessed to much more to the Ashe County Sheriff.

"He has confessed to several murders, really I don’t know about the others but I think it's a total of 17 he has confessed to,” explains Reece. “I don't know if he wanted to get it off his conscious or what the deal exactly is, but he sat down with Sheriff Williams and decided to tell him about this along with some other murders over there."

Reece says hammer gave police an indication of where Lovett's remains could be located.

While investigators continue to search for more answers in this case and look for Lovett's body, her family says while this isn't the ending they were praying for, after nearly 11 years that it's all they can ask for.

“You do hope and pray that she is alive out there somewhere. It's always in the back of your mind,” says Lovett’s daughter Denise McMahan who was only 9 when her mom disappeared. “Everybody's going to wish that she'd come home and act like it never happened and it would have been nice to actually have her come home and it would have been nice to actually seen her.”

Denise always hoped her mom had just taken a vacation. (more...)

Beaumont mom receives ashes of daughter killed by serial killer in '74

2012-01-22T17:36:00.000-05:00

Ima Sanders

Beaumont Enterprise - TX, USA

Beaumont mom receives ashes of daughter killed by serial killer in '74

By Jessica Lipscomb
Updated 08:14 a.m., Thursday, January 12, 2012

From time to time over the past year, Betty Wisecup would pull out a picture of her daughter and study the face looking back at her.

The last time Wisecup saw her, Ima Jean Sanders was a 13-year-old schoolgirl who wore her blonde hair parted down the middle. An age-progression photo created by a missing persons organization now showed a middle-aged Ima with a short bob wearing a cardigan - a woman who never actually existed.

"It's weird to know what she would have looked like," says Wisecup, who lives in Beaumont with Ima's stepfather, Gary.

For decades, Georgia investigators had been unable to identify a young girl whose remains were found in April 1976, two years after Ima had gone missing from her mother and stepfather's home in Warner Robins, Ga.

The family learned on Dec. 12 that the remains matched DNA samples submitted by her mother and her sister earlier last year.

On Tuesday, they received Ima's ashes from the state of Georgia, where investigators believe the 13-year-old was one of at least 18 victims of Florida serial killer John Paul Knowles. After a jail escape in July 1974, the 28-year-old went on a murderous rampage in eight states that ended that December; an officer shot Knowles as he tried to escape from a patrol car. (more...)

Search for woman missing for 18 years re-energized through Facebook

2012-01-22T17:23:00.001-05:00

Virginia Pictou-Noyes

Bangor Daily News - ME, USA

Search for woman missing for 18 years re-energized through Facebook

Eric Zelz | BDN
By Dawn Gagnon, BDN Staff
Posted Jan. 09, 2012, at 6:56 p.m.

EASTON, Maine — In the early morning hours of April 24, 1993, Virginia Sue Pictou-Noyes sneaked out of a Bangor hospital, desperate to get back home to her five children in Easton.

A 26-year-old wife and mother, Pictou-Noyes had been taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center after being beaten outside a Bangor bar, allegedly by her husband, Larry Noyes, and his brother Roger Noyes Jr., according to a police report.

Maine State Police detectives believe she made it as far north as Houlton, where she reportedly made phone calls trying to get a ride home, according to the agency’s Web page on missing people.

She has not been seen nor heard from since.

Larry Noyes was charged with domestic assault and taken to Penobscot County Jail. Roger Noyes Jr. was issued a summons on an assault charge. The charges against them were dismissed, however, after Pictou-Noyes disappeared.

What happened to Pictou-Noyes remains a mystery that her family, friends and police have been trying to solve for 18 years. (more...)

Remains found; cold case reopened

2012-01-22T17:10:00.000-05:00

William Dudley

NV Daily - VA, USA

Posted at 12:00 AM Jan. 12, 2012

Remains found; cold case reopened

Affidavit: Stephens City man went missing after being assaulted with baseball bat in 1993
By Candace Sipos
STEPHENSON -- County officials are investigating whether remains found in Pittsylvania County on Jan. 5 might be those of a Stephens City man who went missing after being assaulted with a baseball bat on Oct. 30, 1993.

William David Dudley went missing from his girlfriend's mobile home in Stephenson on that date, when he was 35. After years of investigation, Dudley was never found and was declared "legally dead" upon the family's request, according to an affidavit filed with a search warrant Wednesday to obtain medical records from Winchester Medical Center.

Investigator K.C. Bohrer of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division received a call on Jan. 5 from Paul Yokum with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner informing him of the skeletal remains found more than 200 miles away, according to the affidavit.

The office has requested all of Dudley's dental and medical records, including X-ray results, and any buccal swabs from known family members to determine whether the DNA matches that of the remains. (more...)

The Gilgo 5: Details of Unidentified Remains

2012-01-20T15:37:00.001-05:00

Babylon Village Patch - NY, USA

The Gilgo 5: Details of Unidentified Remains

National database reveals further information about Gilgo Beach serial killer victims.

By Judy Mottl Email the author
January 9, 2012

The police sketch released recently of one of the five remaining unidentified victims in the Gilgo serial killer investigation was initially posted on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), a searchable national database built to help solve cases involving unidentified remains.

The data is provided on a daily basis by medical examiners and coroners located nationwide.

Several other Gilgo serial killer victims are listed in the database as well, and the records provide insight gleaned from the medical examination.

So far Suffolk Police have identified five of the 10 Gilgo Beach victims. Those five were all young women whom police believe worked as sex escorts using the online classified site Craigslist.

The remaining five victims include three women, a young female child and an Asian male.

Police have released sketches of two women and the male. A search of the NamUs database provides details recorded by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office following examinations of four of the five victims:

Jane Doe No. 7:
Sketch released January 7, 2012. Remains found in 1996 and 2011.

The victim was an adult white female between 18 and 50 years old. There is no estimation of her height. (more...)

Family haunted by local woman’s disappearance, 25 years later

2012-01-20T15:26:00.000-05:00

Monroe News - MI, USA

Family haunted by local woman’s disappearance, 25 years later

by Ray Kisonas , last modified January 09. 2012 8:23AM

TAYLOR — Every day that Walt Verdun eyes the black-and-white photograph of the pretty brunette, it is almost like visiting his sister’s grave.
That framed picture hanging on the wall of a smiling 18-year-old Gail Northington serves as a memorial because there is no cemetery plot to visit. Twenty-five years ago today, Gail, Mr. Verdun’s younger sister, disappeared, never to be seen again.
Her husband at the time, Gary M. Northington, was charged with conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder, was convicted by a jury twice and sentenced to life in prison, where he remains today.
There are theories as to what exactly happened to Gail Northington on Jan. 9, 1987, nothing is certain because her body was never found. She was 29.
“I never forget,” Mr. Verdun said. “I remember it every year. Her memory is a part of the family.”
Mr. Verdun, now 61, lives in Taylor, where he served as a police officer for many years before retiring in 1999. He is the oldest of six Verdun children raised by Walter and Joyce Verdun; Gail was the fourth. Seven years separate him and Gail and he remembers brushing her long hair, 100 strokes a night, when she was a little girl.
In the early 1970s, the family moved to Erie after they bought the old Palace Motel. Gail grew up in Erie and graduated from Mason High School. She was a cheerleader and had worked as a bank teller.
Mr. Verdun said his sister was happy, upbeat, liked to have fun and enjoyed dancing. She had a daughter, Crystal, from a relationship previous to Gary. Crystal, now 33 years old and lives in northern Michigan, works as a psychologist and assists battered women. (more...)

Woman provides info in old murder case in exchange for leniency

2012-01-20T15:23:00.000-05:00

Luddington Daily News - VA, USA

Woman provides info in old murder case in exchange for leniency

Kevin Braciszeski - Daily News Staff Writer

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

MANISTEE — A 61-year-old Irons woman is expected to provide authorities with information about a 16-year-old murder case in exchange for accepting her plea to a lesser charge for her involvement in the case.
The case involves the August 1995 disappearance of Vincent Frank Adamczak, whose body has not yet been found and whom authorities believe was murdered.

Manistee County Prosecutor Ford Stone said Rosemary Stephanie Skrzycki, 61, pleaded no contest Monday to a charge of assistance after the fact of a felony, which carries a five-year prison sentence.

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/

KY Cold Case—James Anthony Galloway

2012-01-20T15:15:00.001-05:00

James Galloway

SurfKY - KY, USA

KY Cold Case—James Anthony Galloway

Dec 20 |09:39 AM

WESTERN KY (12/20/11)—The Kentucky State Police (KSP) investigate criminal activity across the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky, and, in many instances, the information provided by individual citizens allows law enforcement officials to make important breakthroughs in difficult cases.

With this in mind, members of the KSP Post 16 in Henderson, KY are requesting help from the public in resolving the nearly 33-year-old murder investigation of James Anthony Galloway.

Following a missing persons report filed during the earlier half of February, 1979, KSP investigators and local law enforcement officials conducted a broad-scale search for Mr. Galloway, but have yet to locate his body. Mr. Galloway was 38 years-old at the time of disappearance.

Though Mr. Galloway is still missing, investigators with the KSP report that a paper towel containing some disturbing and/or graphic evidence was located within the victim’s abandoned pickup truck on February 15th, 1979.

As the report reads, “Wrapped inside the towel was a piece of human bone covered in blood. The blood was later determined to be the same type as the victim.”

With this evidence, it's strongly suspected that Mr. Galloway met with foul play. (more...)

Appeals court throws out murder conviction

2012-01-20T15:10:00.003-05:00

Alice Hummel

Seattle PI - WA, USA

Appeals court throws out murder conviction

LEVI PULKKINE, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Updated 09:28 p.m., Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A state appeals court has thrown out the murder verdict against a former Bellingham resident previously convicted of killing his wife 18 years after she disappeared.

Finding that a Whatcom County judge improperly questioned jurors outside the public view, the state Court of Appeals Division One reversed Bruce Hummel’s murder conviction and remanded the case for a second trial.

The three-judge panel unanimously found that Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Charles R. Snyder questioned several jurors in chambers without first making a finding that the questioning should not be done publicly. State law rooted in the constitutional right to an open trial requires judges consider a variety of factors before closing court proceedings to the public.

In 2009, Hummel was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1990 disappearance of his wife, Alice. At the time, according to court documents, Alice Hummel had begun to suspect her husband was molesting children.

At trial, prosecutors argued Hummel told their children their mother had left for California, and went so far as to fake letters from her in which she said she’d met a new man who was not interested in having children. One child found a “suicide letter” in his mother’s name written in his father’s handwriting. (more...)

Condemned CA killer's map yields fruitless search

2012-01-20T15:05:00.001-05:00

Chevelle Wheeler

Mercury News - CA, USA

Condemned CA killer's map yields fruitless search

The Associated Press
Posted: 12/26/2011 04:13:00 PM PST

SAN ANDREAS, Calif.—A condemned killer's attempt to lead authorities to the body of one of his four victims in exchange for certain conditions has once again frustrated investigators and the victim's family following a fruitless search.
A search crew spent last Thursday digging up a Calaveras County hillside where death row inmate Wesley Shermantine had told the newspaper he buried 16-year-old Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler in 1985, The Record of Stockton ( http://bit.ly/sugpoc) reports.

Shermantine said he wanted his $18,000 in court-ordered restitution to be paid off for the information, The Record said. He offered to provide the location of a second body, belonging to a missing woman whose disappearance remains unsolved, if it was.

But after using cadaver dogs, picks, axes and a backhoe to search the spot under an oak tree where Shermantine, 45, had said Wheeler was buried—located on his parents' former property in San Andreas— county sheriff's deputies did not find any human remains.

"You hope you don't have to find her," Det. Anthony Eberhardt. "At the same time, the families need closure."

In 2001, Shermantine received the death penalty for the killings of Wheeler, Paul Cavanaugh, 31, and Howard King, 35, in 1984 and 25-year-old Cyndi Vanderheiden in 1998. (more...)

Child abducted from Grady in 1993 still missing

2012-01-11T06:38:00.000-05:00

Composites of Tavish Sutton at age 4 and 17

AJC - GA, USA

Child abducted from Grady in 1993 still missing

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Wednesday’s attempted abduction of a baby from Southern Regional Medical Center had a good ending when an alarm system and hospital employees thwarted the kidnapping, but that wasn’t the case nearly 19 years ago when 1-month-old Tavish Sutton was taken from a downtown Atlanta hospital

Despite a $10,000 reward and hundreds of interviews by Atlanta police and the FBI, Tavish, who was recovering from minor surgery when he was abducted from Grady Memorial Hospital’s Hughes Spalding pediatric unit on March 9, 1993, was never found.

“We never really had any good information,” Atlanta police Det. Sheila Cumberworth told the AJC in 1998.

Tavish was in the custody of Family and Children Services when he disappeared. Neither his mother, who was being treated for schizophrenia at a mental institution at the time, nor other family members were considered suspects in his kidnapping. (more...)

The search continues for missing Newport News baby from 30 years ago

2012-01-11T06:02:00.002-05:00

David Blockett; age-progression

WTKR - VA, USA

The search continues for missing Newport News baby from 30 years ago

10:07 p.m. EST, December 30, 2011
NewsChannel 3 is closer than ever to solving a missing baby mystery. For months, we've been investigating the case of David Blockett, the Newport News baby stolen from his mother in December 1980.

The case had grown cold until a NewsChannel 3 investigation caused police to re-open the case.

A mystery woman tricked David's mother, Vanessa, into thinking she was a social worker. The strange woman took David and his two-year-old brother, Frederick, from their home.

She let Frederick go in Hampton and kept David.

After working with Newport News police to re-open David's case in October, new clues have come to light. Many of these clues indicate that David may still be alive.

Newport News detective Amber Rodgers is assigned to David's case. She feels they are closer than ever to cracking the cold case.

One of the most crucial keys to solving David's case is figuring out the identity of the abductor.

Police drew a sketch based on Vanessa Blockett's description of the woman who posed as a social worker. The woman said her name was "Marie Kelley." She was described as a black woman between 5'6 and 5'8, around 150 pounds, white teeth and arched eyebrows. (more...)

North Idaho 1982 cold case re-opened

2012-01-11T05:24:00.004-05:00

Well I keep on posting since you all seem to enjoy reading about UIDs. Anyway I keep hope the Doe Network will be back one day. I hope the owner will sue Todd Matthews and his accomplices for the theft of the website.

KREM - ID, USA

North Idaho 1982 cold case re-opened

by KREM.com

Posted on January 4, 2012 at 3:06 PM

Updated Wednesday, Jan 4 at 3:24 PM

NEZ PERCE, Idaho-- Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office has re-opened a cold homicide case from 1982.

On July 26, 1982 a deceased male was discovered on the shore of the Snake River approximately 25 miles from Lewiston. The cause of death was found to be homicide.

Efforts to identify this subject were not successful at the time and the male was interred in Lewiston as a John Doe.

Funding was recently obtained by the Sheriff’s Office through the Rocky Mountain Information Network in order to have DNA testing done.

The Rocky Mountain Information Network is one of six regional centers of the Regional Information Sharing Systems established by Congress in 1983 to assist the law enforcement community. The Sheriff’s Office applied, and was awarded, a grant to fund the disinterment and DNA testing of the victim.

Samples will be sent to the University of North Texas for DNA analysis at little or no cost. The University will also then submit the DNA profile to all available data-bases and notify the Sheriff’s Office of any possible matches.

http://www.krem.com/news/crime/North-Idaho-1982-cold-case-re-opened-136698573.html

Old article:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BbleAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vjAMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5750,5097057&dq=snake-river+designer&hl=en

2012-01-10T03:45:00.000-05:00

Are many of you interested in unidentified victims? I was wondering if I wouldn't stop posting about them since the Doe Network no longer exists and I was just sharing research I did for this site here.
I don't know, I'll think about it but it seems pointless now. Well if you see that I've stopped posting about them that will be why.
I still have to rethink about my criterias for posting because with only missing for more than a decade I quickly am finished with alerts and then have nothing left to post but as I did before it was way too much time taking.

Local cold cases solved

2012-01-05T13:15:00.001-05:00

Cecile Henry

Daily Times - NM, USA

Local cold cases solved

By Elizabeth Piazza epiazza@daily-times.com
Posted: 01/03/2012
FARMINGTON — A recent DNA match laid to rest two cold cases nearly a decade old: one a missing woman from Gallup and the other an unidentified woman burned in a car crash near Farmington.
It was a welcome but bittersweet ending to two unknowns that for years baffled investigators.

Cecile Henry was 24 years old when her mother dropped her off at the federal building in Gallup on Feb. 15, 2002.

Her mother never saw her again.

That same day and 120 miles away on Navajo Route 36, Navajo Nation police and San Juan County Sheriff's deputies were investigating a car crash that left a female driver burned beyond recognition.

"We've been trying for 10 years to figure out who this person was," Detective Ken Weisheit said of the burned body. "It's sad at the same time to make a notification to the family, but for 10 years there's been this big unknown."

Deputies responded about 6:15 p.m. that day to a head-on collision on Navajo Route 36, where they discovered a 1983 white Chevrolet Monte Carlo "fully engulfed in flame," according to police records.

The driver of the Monte Carlo, now identified as Henry, was unknown at the time. The car matched the description of a vehicle that was stolen minutes before the crash.

Henry "had been hitchhiking, evidently," former Sheriff's Detective Marlyn Wyatt previously said. Wyatt was the lead detective in the case before leaving the Sheriff's Office. (more...)

New Image Heating Up Cold Case

2012-01-05T12:49:00.000-05:00

NBC Connecticut - CT, USA

New Image Heating Up Cold Case

Police hope to learn the identity of a woman murdered 20 years ago.By Bob Connors | Thursday, Dec 29, 2011

New Britain Police released a new 3D image Thursday of a woman murdered more than 20 years ago

Her murder has gone unsolved and no one has come forward to identify her. She is known only as Jane Doe.

Her badly decomposed body was found near railroad tracks a short distance from Myrtle Street Oct. 11, 1991. She had been shot in the head, and may have been dead anywhere from three weeks to four months before she was found, according to police.

"She's somebody's daughter. She's somebody's friend, and I know she was missed and probably still is missed," Capt. James Wardwell said.

Jane Doe is believed to be white or Hispanic and in her late 20s. She was approximately 5'5" tall and around 130-135 pounds, with straight black hair, police said. When she was found, she was wearing a colorful jumper style dress with a panda bear pattern. (more...)

Girl's disappearance 20 years ago haunts Solano County

2012-01-05T12:44:00.000-05:00

Amanda Campbell

Mercury News - CA, USA

Girl's disappearance 20 years ago haunts Solano County

By Kimberly K. Fu
Vacaville Reporter
Posted: 12/27/2011 07:43:46 AM PST

Twenty years ago today a 4-year-old Fairfield girl vanished as she traversed the few blocks between the nearby houses of two friends.

Amanda "Nikki" Campbell has never been found and her community continues to grieve.

"I often wonder if she's alive and I hope that she is," said Agnes Bethune, who still lives in the Salisbury Drive neighborhood that Nikki and her family once called home.

As with many people, the events of Dec. 27, 1991, are deeply ingrained in Bethune's memory.

"I remember well the day she disappeared; it was a rainy day," the neighbor recalled. "She usually was always with her brother but she wasn't with him then."

According to reports, Nikki and her then-5-year-old brother, Matthew, were playing at a friend's house eight doors from their residence when she decided to visit another friend, who lived about four doors down. She took off alone between 4 and 4:30 p.m. but never reached her destination.

When Nikki failed to return home with Matthew by the appointed time, a search began.

And then, police were called.

A massive search team fanned out across the community in pursuit of the little girl with chubby, dimpled cheeks and wavy blond hair. Despite the falling rain, crews hunted within the city until about 1 a.m. The search resumed later that morning.

Though no clues to Nikki's disappearance were apparent, her pink and purple bicycle was spotted within a few blocks of her house. (more...)

Public asked to identify skeletal remains

2012-01-05T12:04:00.000-05:00

Victim's dental work

Columbia Basin Herald - WA, USA

Posted: Sunday, December 18, 2011 9:05 am | Updated: 12:05 pm, Fri Dec 16, 2011.

Public asked to identify skeletal remains

By Ryan Lancaster,
Herald staff writer Columbia Basin Herald
EPHRATA - Grant County Sheriff's detectives are asking citizens to help identify a man whose skeletal remains were found near the Potholes Reservoir.

A hunter called 9-1-1 Nov. 23 after discovering a decomposed body and clothing near a boat launch at the east end of the reservoir, according to Grant County Sheriff's officials. The body reportedly appeared to have been outdoors for about a year and some of the bones seemed to have been scattered by wildlife.

A forensic anthropological autopsy conducted in Seattle by the King County Medical Examiner's Office revealed a single gunshot wound on the body, according to Grant County Sheriff's Major Crimes Detective Kim Cook, who said while the precise circumstances of the injury are not yet known the investigation is being considered a homicide. (more...)

Bodies of women found in 1990, 1998 still unidentified

2012-01-05T11:33:00.000-05:00

Goup State - SC, USA

Bodies of women found in 1990, 1998 still unidentified

By Jenny Arnold

Published: Monday, December 26, 2011

Spartanburg County Coroner's Office investigator Rick Ellis has been working to find the identity of a woman whose skeletal remains were found in a wooded area in Startex in October.

But Ellis, a retired Spartanburg County sheriff's deputy, started working at the coroner's office earlier this year to investigate two cold cases, also unidentified women whose bodies were found in 1990 and 1998.

As with the Startex body, what little information investigators have to work with in the 1990s cases has been entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, in hopes that a match, a name, will come up to identify them.

The 1990 case is made more difficult by the fact that there were only skeletal remains, and that the head, right hand and feet were apparently cut off. Teeth often help reveal the identity of skeletal remains if dental records are available,

“They made every effort to make sure her identity was concealed, but we're not going to stop,” said Coroner Rusty Clevenger. (more...)

Photos Could Help Explain Teen Girls' Disappearance

2012-01-05T11:16:00.001-05:00

NBCDFW - TX, USA

Photos Could Help Explain Teen Girls' Disappearance

Carrollton police need help identifying people in pictures By Sara Story
Wednesday, Dec 28, 2011

The Carrollton Police Department is are asking for the public's help in solving a case that happened more than 20 years ago.

Two teenage girls, Stacie Madison and Susan Smalley, vanished in March 1988. Their disappearance remains a mystery.

Sgt. Joel Payne said investigators reopened the case two years ago, following up on every lead.

"You get to know these girls and realize that these are very typical, late '80s teenagers, getting ready to graduate high school and go to college," Payne said. "We could paper the building with the number of leads and information that came in, but unfortunately, nothing led to a conclusion."

Police said a group of pictures could be the missing piece to this puzzle. (more...)

Austin Opens 30 Year Old Cold Case

2012-01-05T11:11:00.001-05:00

Mary Jo Long

KAALTV - MN, USA

Austin Opens 30 Year Old Cold Case

(ABC 6 News) -- Tuesday marked the 30 year anniversary of an Austin teen's disappearance.

"She disappeared shortly after Christmas of 1981,” said Detective Todd Clennon with the Austin Police Department.

It was thirty years ago when Austin teen, Mary Jo Long was seen for the last time. She was a student here at Austin High School. At the age of 17, she went to live with her father in California, without her mother's approval. Long enrolled at Gardena California High School that spring. Three months later she disappeared.

Detective Clennon tells us he searched through California records and there was no mention of her disappearance.
“Prior to that, there's no entries from NCIC so it appears as though, although she went missing in California, California authorities were never notified of her disappearance,” said Clennon.
A report wouldn't be filed for another 7 years, but not in California, rather, here in Austin.

So now, just six months on the case, Detective Clennon is hoping with today's technology, he'll be able to crack the case. A big one is DNA testing, something that they couldn't do in the 80's. (more...)

Man guilty in ’82 cold case

2012-01-05T11:04:00.000-05:00

Carole Spearman

Tonwanda News - NY, USA
December 30, 2011

Man guilty in ’82 cold case

By Neale Gulley
The Tonawanda News The Tonawanda News Fri Dec 30, 2011, 12:48 AM EST

A California man has been found guilty in the 1982 killing of a North Tonawanda woman who disappeared on Christmas Eve almost three decades ago.

A court in Barstow, Calif. found Jimmy Joe Cox, 72, guilty last week of second-degree murder for killing Carole Spearman, his girlfriend at the time.

Spearman, who graduated from North Tonawanda High School, was living with Cox in Needles, Calif., a rural city near the Arizona border, at the time she went missing 28 years ago.

Her sister, Catherine Axberg, still lives in North Tonawanda. She said Cox faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 17 in Barstow Superior Court. He was found guilty Dec. 18 of second-degree murder. (more...)

Remains of I-5 Strangler victim brought back to Oregon

2012-01-05T10:58:00.001-05:00

Lou Ellen Burleigh

KOINLocal 6 - WA, USA

Remains of I-5 Strangler victim brought back to Oregon

Reported by: The Associated Press

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — The remains of a young woman murdered more than 30 years ago by a killer known as the I-5 Strangler are coming home.

A piece of bone discovered near Lake Berryessa in California last summer is all that investigators have found of Lou Ellen Burleigh.

The remains will be laid to rest in Klamath County, where Burleigh was born, her cousin, Sharon Havlina, told the Herald and News in a story Friday.

Burleigh lived in the farming community of Merrill, where her mother was a teacher, until she was 6 and her father moved the family to Pleasant Hill, Calif., to take a job as a draughtsman.

Now relatives "can actually go to a spot, like people sometimes do, and just talk," said the victim's mother, Wilma Burleigh, who now lives in Seattle.

For years, whenever a family member would die, others would say, "They know where Ellen is now," recalled Havlina, who used to babysit Burleigh.

Roger Reece Kibbe was serving time for the murder of a teen prostitute when authorities confronted him in 2003 with evidence about other women. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to killing six woman along Interstate 5 between 1977 and 1987. (more...)

Families long for those who’ve disappeared

2012-01-05T10:55:00.000-05:00

OMG not only didn't they notify Sidonia Harmon's daughter of her identification but also she was found 5 min. from her own mothers' home.

Sidonia Harmon

AJC - GA, USA

Families long for those who’ve disappeared

By Bill Torpy

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

On a summer day in 2010, Ethan Condon stepped off a Greyhound bus in Atlanta, called his mother, then disappeared.

Athena Curry was said to have walked out of her boyfriend’s Southside home seven months ago and vanished into the night, leaving behind her baby.

Alan Lee Morse set off from Cobb County headed back to his naval base in Bermuda, but never arrived. He’s been AWOL for 22 years.

Condon, Curry and Morse are among the hundreds of people listed as missing in Atlanta. In many cases, relatives and friends have canvassed neighborhoods, questioned buddies and co-workers, set up websites and badgered police, only to be left wondering about their loved ones’ fates.

In the end, all the families can do is wait for answers. Did the person walk away of his own volition? Was he kidnapped? Is he still alive?

“It’s a 24-hour thing for the family, with us always thinking about him,” said Condon’s older sister, Page Pavelich, who lives in Illinois. Condon, who would be 31 now, was addicted to prescription drugs and was heading north to clean up his life, family members said. He was traveling from Florida to Chicago when he stepped off the bus in Atlanta and missed his connection. (more...)

New lead may identify boy's remains found in 1999

2012-01-05T10:43:00.001-05:00

"Dennis"

WSBTV - GA, USA

Posted: 8:39 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011

New lead may identify boy's remains found in 1999

Aaron Diamant

DeKALB CO., Ga. —
It's a case that's haunted the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office for more than a decade.

"It weighs on everyone; it really does," forensic investigator Linda Gochenour told Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant.

In February 1999, police discovered the body of a 5- to 7-year-old boy in the woods behind a cemetery off Clifton Springs Road. The remains had been there for months.

Investigators spent weeks combing the site for clues. The community held a memorial service at a makeshift grave, and over the years, anthropologists have tried recreating his face -- the face of a boy that still has no name.

"A child deserves to be with people who love him, be with his family," Gochenour said. "We need to get him home."

The case struck a chord with investigators, who call him "Dennis."

"Every child deserves a name," said Gochenour.

Adding to the mystery, there were no obvious signs of how he died. (more...)

"Dennis"'s clothing

Nici Vance unravels the mysteries of unidentified remains

2012-01-05T10:36:00.000-05:00

Dixon Tew

Oregon Live - OR, USA

Nici Vance unravels the mysteries of unidentified remains

Published: Saturday, December 31, 2011, 6:00 AM Updated: Saturday, December 31, 2011, 10:51 PM

By Special to The Oregonian The Oregonian

CLACKAMAS -- The bones in the storage room and remains in the freezer bother Nici Vance.

A man washed up on a Lincoln County beach in 2002. A woman found inside a tent in Portland's Washington Park in 2008. A woman pulled from the Willamette River in 1993.

Who are they? Do they have family? Is anyone looking for them?

Four years ago there were 60 unidentified remains at the Oregon medical examiner's office where Vance works as a forensic anthropologist. The oldest had been on a shelf since 1968.

Vance wants to unravel their mysteries.

"Everybody wants to know where people go," she says. "These bones are somebody's loved one."

In four years, Vance has identified the remains of 12 of the people. It's happened because of her love of anthropology, dogged work, the burgeoning science of DNA-based investigations and a national database open to both law enforcement and families.

"This is absolutely my passion," Vance says. "I want that closet empty."

Dixon Tew

In 2002, a man's decomposing body came ashore on a Lincoln County beach. Detectives could not identify him through regular techniques, so the remains languished in the medical examiner's freezer.

"He was one of the first I targeted because he seemed identifiable," Vance says.

To create a DNA profile, Vance sent a tissue sample to a U.S. Justice Department-financed lab at University of North Texas. In 2007, five years after the body was found, Vance and the lab posted details on NamUs, a national website for missing or unidentified persons that was just launched.

Nothing happened for three years. Then in 2010 a Seattle family submitted a saliva swab to the North Texas lab. It created a DNA profile and submitted it to NamUs, which matched the sample of the remains in the Oregon medical examiner's freezer. (more...)

Photos of dead aim to bring new life to cold cases

2012-01-05T10:27:00.000-05:00

SFGATE - CA, USA

Photos of dead aim to bring new life to cold cases

By DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press

Associated Press January 3, 2012 02:33 AM Copyright Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

(01-03) 02:33 PST MILWAUKEE (AP) --

The corpses' faces are mostly bloated, their skin pale and discolored. One man's lips are stiffened into a grim frown and he stares with half-open eyes. Another man appears to be sleeping, his color natural enough that he almost looks alive.

Forensic investigator Michael Simley knows some people will find the photographs unsettling, but he said he decided to post them online for an important reason: the bodies are unidentified. All were found in Wisconsin's most populous area, Milwaukee County, and have been without names for years — decades, in some cases — and Simley said he's desperate to find answers.

"We're not doing these people justice to let them go unidentified. These are family members, friends, people who are missed," Simley said. "Everyone deserves to be recognized as who they were in life. Being buried as a Jane or John Doe doesn't sit well with me."

Investigators nationwide use a variety of tools when asking for the public's help identifying corpses. Many release sketches or 3-D clay models, along with photos of tattoos, clothing or jewelry of the deceased. But a handful are now taking the more extreme step of releasing photographs of faces. (more...)

Link: http://county.milwaukee.gov/MedicalExaminer/Unidentified-Adults1.htm

Officials won't rule out woman's husband, JR, as No. 1 suspect

2012-01-04T02:32:00.000-05:00

Patty Vaughn

KSAT - TX, USA

Officials won't rule out woman's husband, JR, as No. 1 suspect

Published On: déc. 19 2011

SAN ANTONIO - Fifteen years after Bexar County mother Patty Vaughn disappeared, investigators are releasing new information in the unsolved case.

On Christmas Day 1996, Vaughn had a fight with her husband, JR, and called some of her family members distraught and crying. The next day, her blue minivan showed up, but no Patty.

Bexar County investigators showed KSAT-12 pictures that hadn't been seen by the public—a picture of Patty's home, her blue minivan and the inside of her living room.

Officials said they held on to the photos for years and are ready to discuss the case further.

"We have good, solid information, where we just didn't have that information before," Louis Antu with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office said.

For years investigators tried to rule out Patty's husband as a suspect, but simply couldn't.

"Every place that he claims to be, we just can't confirm that he's there, and we'd love to," Antu said. "We really want to rule him out so we can go sifting elsewhere if we need to." (more...)

Authorities finally ID victim of fatal 2001 hit-and-run accident in Phoenix as military vet

2012-01-04T01:30:00.000-05:00

The Republic - AZ, USA

Authorities finally ID victim of fatal 2001 hit-and-run accident in Phoenix as military vet

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: December 21, 2011 - 5:59 pm

PHOENIX — Authorities have finally identified a man who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Phoenix more than a decade ago.

Arizona Department of Public Safety officials say the victim is Leonard Louis Glaza, who was a 49-year-old military veteran when he died.

The DPS says a man crossing 15th Avenue and McDowell Road on Aug. 10, 2001, was struck by a vehicle that fled the scene and never was located.

The man died from his injuries. The victim had no identification and a check of his fingerprints showed no local record. He remained unidentified despite some distinctive tattoos and was buried near the White Tanks Mountains.

Advanced fingerprint technology led to a match for Glaza. Phoenix police say they're still investigating the case as an outstanding vehicular homicide. http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/768fb042f206473cafe07bdaf1421438/AZ--Phoenix-Cold-Case/

Woman's body remains unidentified

2012-01-04T01:17:00.001-05:00

Chron - TX, USA

Woman's body remains unidentified

By DALE LEZON, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published 12:50 p.m., Thursday, December 22, 2011

Officials are asking the public to help them identify a woman whose skeletal remains were found in a wooded area near a vacant house in northeast Houston earlier this year.

The remains were discovered in an overgrown lot at 5005 Neches near Ivy about 1:30 p.m. Nov. 30, according to the Houston Police Department.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences has been unable to determine the woman's identity. Her cause of death has not been released.

Officials said she is between 35 years old and 55 years old. She is between 5 feet and 5 feet, 5 inches tall. Her teeth are in poor condition. Some teeth are missing and the remaining teeth have decay.

A black leather Nike athletic shoe was found near her body. Also found with her was a silver cross pendant on a silver chain. The cross was engraved in Spanish.

Police said workers hired to clear weeds and other vegetation in the lot discovered the remains and called authorities.

Anyone with information about the woman's identity is urged to call the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences at 713 796-6774 or 713 796-9292.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Woman-s-body-remains-unidentified-2420259.php

35-year-old mystery remains unsolved

2012-01-04T00:21:00.000-05:00

"Beth Doe"

Times Leader - NJ, USA

Dismembered body State police still trying to learn woman’s identity

December 20, 2011

35-year-old mystery remains unsolved

By Ed Lewis
Times Leader Staff Writer

EAST SIDE BORO. – Thirty-five years ago today, a 14-year-old boy playing along the shore of the Lehigh River made a horrific discovery of a woman’s body, dismembered and packed into three suitcases scattered across the bank of the river.

The woman – who was in her third trimester of pregnancy ready to give birth to a girl -- has never been identified. She is still known as Beth Doe by state police investigators. “Until we identify who she is, the case can’t be solved,” said state police Cpl. Thomas McAndrew.

State police believe the suitcases were thrown from the westbound Interstate 80 bridge that spans the river 150 feet below. Instead of hitting the water and being carried away by the current, the suitcases landed on the shore in Carbon County, just across the border from White Haven, Luzerne County.

The impact of the fall broke open two suitcases, exposing the woman’s head, torso and fetus. The third suitcase contained the woman’s arms and legs.

Her nose and ears had been removed from her head.

An autopsy revealed she was strangled and shot in the back of the neck, and had been dead less than 24 hours from the time the body was found at about 4:30 p.m. Dec. 20, 1976. She was dismembered with a fine, serrated tool. (more...)

49-year mystery: Where is Billy Jones?

2012-01-04T00:09:00.002-05:00

William "Billy" Jones

The Daily Journal - NJ, USA

49-year mystery: Where is Billy Jones?

Vineland police try to solve 'Lost Boy' case

Written by Deborah M. Marko

VINELAND — Forty-nine years ago today, William “Billy” Jones was bundled up in a blue snowsuit and playing in his family’s Taylor Avenue front yard, just off Chestnut Avenue.

The 3-year-old had a fresh haircut and new puppy.
His mother, Evelyn Jones, watched Billy and his younger sister from the kitchen window while making lunch.
In the instant she was distracted, Billy was gone.
It’s a case that has puzzled police and haunted Billy’s sister, Jill Jones, who remained in the yard that day and was found holding a plastic poinsettia.
The 2-year-old told her mom Billy gave her the flower and “the boogeyman took Billy,” according to police reports.
Now a third generation of Vineland police investigators is focused on shifting the case’s status from cold to closed. For the first time in decades, Jones, 51, feels hopeful about the investigation, willing to trust Detective Kristian Kirchner, who wasn’t even born when Billy went missing. (more...)

Unidentified persons in Southeast Texas

2012-01-03T23:50:00.000-05:00

Beaumont Enterprise - TX, USA

Unidentified persons in Southeast Texas

By Jessica Lipscomb
Published 11:16 a.m., Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Through the years, local law enforcement agencies have recovered the bodies of several people in Southeast Texas who have yet to be identified.

The identify of a man found dead in the Intracoastal Waterway on Monday still is unknown, according to police.

The body is that of a Hispanic man, about 5 feet 4 inches tall and 130 pounds, in his mid-20s to mid-30s. He did not have tattoos, but had two scars on his left bicep and one on his right shin.

At the time of his death, he was wearing Nike shoes, blue jeans and a khaki Aeropostale shirt underneath a red T-shirt with black writing. There was nothing in his pockets and he was not wearing jewelry.

Anyone with information about who he is or about his death is asked to contact the police department at (409) 983-8624.

Click through our gallery of other still unidentified persons found in Southeast Texas to see if you can help with a case.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/photos/article/Unidentified-persons-in-Southeast-Texas-2417592.php

Cold case help sought in 1985 Crescent Beach homicide

2012-01-03T23:02:00.000-05:00

Florida Times-Union - FL, USA

Cold case help sought in 1985 Crescent Beach homicide

Posted: December 5, 2011

By Dan Scanlan

St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case detectives are reaching out for the public’s help to solve a quarter century-old murder case uncovered in a Crescent Beach sand dune.

Workers building a dock discovered the skeletal remains on April 11, 1985, about a mile north of the Crescent Beach ramp. They called the Sheriff’s Office, which sent the remains to the University of Florida for study. The results indicated it was probably a white woman between the ages of 20 and 40, about five-foot seven-inches tall, with light brown to blonde hair. Her death occurred between one and five years prior to the discovery, the cause of her demise undetermined due to decomposition. But the death was ruled a homicide, the bones showing healed fractures and three surgical burr holes in the skull that could have come from accident injuries that had healed. (more...)

40 years later mystery of missing girl still unsolved

2012-01-03T09:31:00.001-05:00

Jamie Grissim

KATU - OR, USA

40 years later mystery of missing girl still unsolved

By Dan Tilkin KATU News and KATU.com Staff Published: Dec 2, 2011

CLARK COUNTY, Wash. – Starr Lara's sister, Jamie Grissim, left Fort Vancouver High School and vanished with hardly a trace 40 years ago.

Starr will mark the tragic milestone Saturday with a candlelight vigil and says she's trying to come to terms with more bad news she recently received in the murder investigation.

Jamie was Starr's big sister. She left their foster mother’s house, went to Fort Vancouver High School and never came home. That was Dec. 7, 1971. Starr was told Jamie simply ran away.

"I just kept staring out the picture window," Starr said during a recent interview.

Jamie was 16.

Six months after she disappeared, Jamie's identification was found by a neighbor picking up trash on Dole Valley Road in a very remote part of northeast Clark County. Then two years later, another neighbor walking up a nearby logging road discovered the remains of two women. One was identified as Carol Valenzuela. The other woman has never been identified.

Clark County detectives have long thought suspected serial killer Warren Forrest is responsible for the deaths of those two women. A sheriff's office document says they also suspect that "Jamie Grissim is the first victim" of Warren Forrest, but they've never been able to match Jamie to the unidentified remains. (more...)

KY Cold Case—James “Mousie” Morris

2012-01-03T09:12:00.001-05:00

James Morris

SurfKY - KY, USA

KY Cold Case—James “Mousie” Morris

Dec 13 |08:59 AM

WESTERN KY (12/13/11)— The Kentucky State Police (KSP) investigate criminal activity across the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky, and, in many instances, the information provided by individual citizens allows law enforcement officials to make important breakthroughs in difficult cases.

With this in mind, members of the KSP Post 16 in Henderson, KY are requesting help from the public in locating a missing person, James Mann Morris (aka Mousie), who was last seen over 34 years ago on May 4th, 1977.

Today, Mr. Morris would be 62 years-old.

As KSP investigators report, Mr. Morris was last seen in Henderson County, KY.

At this time, it is believed that Mr. Morris may have met with foul play in a remote Henderson County location. As further evidence suggests, Mr. Morris may have been shot at this location. However, as mentioned above, the investigation is ongoing. (more...)

Dona Ana County Investigators Hope Sketch Helps Identify Victim

2012-01-03T09:02:00.001-05:00

Albuquerque Journal - NM, USA

Dona Ana County Investigators Hope Sketch Helps Identify Victim

By Ashley Meeks / Las Cruces Sun-News on Mon, Dec 12, 201

LAS CRUCES — A new composite sketch of an unidentified girl whose remains were found in the desert north of Las Cruces nearly 27 years ago has renewed hope among investigators that the victim may finally be identified, according to the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office.

Rabbit hunters stumbled upon the shallow grave of human remains on March 10, 1985, at a location off Interstate 25 near Upham. Through autopsy, the New Mexico Office of the Medical Examiner determined the body was that of a white female, between 16 and 19 years old, with a slight build and blonde or light brown hair, who had likely been buried three to six months prior to being discovered.

In recent years, several local cold cases have been solved: Ronald Ralph King was sentenced this year to 12 years in prison for killing 24-year-old Heather Lynn Eiche in 2001. King admitted to the killing in 2009. And in 2007, after DNA from a burglary matched him to the crime, Gabriel Avila was sentenced to 69 years in prison for the 2003 killing of New Mexico State University student Katie Sepich, who had been raped, strangled and partially burned near the old city dump.

In the “Jane Doe” case, a clay reconstruction was initially created using the skeletal remains of her face, including a lower human jaw bone. Images of that reconstruction were made public, but did not result in any solid leads. But recently, an in-house sketch artist at the Office of the Medical Examiner created a newer, hand-drawn image of the girl, and while it’s not an exact likeness, Cold Case Investigator Ben Venable says it’s a significant step forward. (more...)

Police confirm link between Ronnie Gibbons death and '93 Brinks robbery

2012-01-03T08:45:00.000-05:00

Joseph "Ronnie" Gibbons

Greece Post - NY, USA

Police confirm link between Ronnie Gibbons death and '93 Brinks robbery

By Melissa Daniels, staff writer
Messenger Post
Posted Dec 12, 2011 @ 03:57 PM

Greece, N.Y. — A 15-year-old missing person case in the Greece Police Department is now a full-blown homicide investigation, following the confirmation that human remains washed ashore from Lake Ontario belonged to Joseph "Ronnie" Gibbons, last seen on Ridge Road in Greece in 1995.

Police also confirm that the death of Gibbons was linked to the 1993 Brinks Co. robbery in downtown Rochester, when more than $7 million was stolen. But investigators won't specify how at this time, only saying that physical evidence and statements connects the heist and Gibbon's death together.

Chief Todd Baxter says police began investigating when Gibbons, who was a professional boxes was reported missing in 1996. The case went cold, and the department re-opened the case in 2010 with new leads to follow.

Then this August, Onondaga County Medical Examiner's Office investigators confirmed that the remains found in Jefferson County, a foot and a torso, belonged to Gibbons, in part due to a database that contains missing persons DNA.

Until the confirmation, the remains were buried in Cape Vincent.

"It's taken the investigation to a new level now that we've positively identified Mr.Gibbons," Baxter said. (more...)

No ID on remains found in Bartow woods

2012-01-03T08:31:00.000-05:00

AJC - GA, USA

No ID on remains found in Bartow woods

By Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Five months have passed since human remains were found in Bartow County woods, scattered among leaves on the ground.

And while investigators have not determined the man's identity, they know he was shot at least twice -- once in the back of the head and once in the torso.

But who is he? Deputies with the Bartow County Sheriff's Office have some clues, but need the public's help to solve the mystery.

It was shortly after 8 a.m. July 3 when four people walking to a fishing hole spotted what they thought was a human skull just north of Emerson, according to Bartow County Sheriff Clark Milsap. The group called 911, and deputies arriving at the scene confirmed it was a human head.

A search of the area led investigators to most of a skeleton, Milsap said. The only clothing found was a pair of boxer shorts and a single white sock, police said.

The remains were then sent to the GBI crime lab for forensic testing. Experts determined the victim was between 18 and 40 years old and was between 5-feet-3 and 5-feet-9 inches tall. (more...)

Decades Later, Cold Case Baffles Police, Family

2012-01-03T06:54:00.001-05:00

Angela Chan

KTVZ - OR, USA

Decades Later, Cold Case Baffles Police, Family

Redmond Teen Vanished in 1989; Husband Last To See Her
By Mackenzie Wilson, KTVZ.COM

POSTED: 5:10 pm PST December 14, 2011
AAAText SizePrintEmailUPDATED: 6:56 pm PST December 14, 2011
BEND,Ore. -- What happened to Angie Chan?

For more than two decades, that question has haunted her family.

"We may never have an answer, and that one there, it just, I can't describe the kind of pain," said Chan's sister, Wendy Henrickson.

Henrickson's younger sister, Angie, was just a teenager when she vanished without a trace in March of 1989.

Just over a year earlier, at only 17 years old, Angie married Bruce Chan, a lieutenant in the Marines.

Wendy says her parents thought he was a great guy with a bright future -- and they gave Angie their blessing.

"He seemed like such a wonderful man, and the perfect gentleman," Henrickson said recently.

But it didn't turn out to be the fairytale Angie was hoping for.

The couple lived in different states and eventually separated.

Bruce was stationed at Camp Pendleton in Southern California, and Angie was living with her parents in Redmond.

Wendy says It wasn't long before Angie told their mother she wanted out of the marriage. She planned to tell Bruce when he came to visit.

"That was a huge discussion, before Bruce showed up to pick Angela up," Henrickson recalled. "You know, like, 'This is it,You've got to tell him, it's absolutely done and over with'."

Angie left her parents house that night with Bruce -- and never came back. (more...)

Few Answers in Darleta Hurt's Disappearance 25 Years Later

2012-01-03T00:44:00.000-05:00

Darleta Hurt

WOKTV - SC, USA

Few Answers in Darleta Hurt's Disappearance 25 Years Later

By Nicky Walters, Reporter

ST. ALBANS - Darleta Hurt was set to meet her estranged husband in court for a divorce hearing Dec. 15, 1986. But days earlier she went missing.

"She disappeared without a trace," said Captain James Agee with the St. Albans Police Department.

Hurt left her son's home in St.Albans Dec. 10 and drove to her apartment on Kanawha Terrace. That was the last time anyone saw her. Police say her husband, Robert Hurt, became a suspect in her disappearance. Robert Hurt was a former West Virginia State trooper.

"A few days before she disappeared she had reported to St Albans Police Department some threats made by her estranged husband," Agee said.

In the months following, Robert Hurt committed suicide.

After his death police searched his large horse farm in Putnam County looking for Darleta Hurt's body. The search turned up no clues.

If you have any information on Darleta Hurt's disappearance call the St. Albans Police Department at 304-727-2251.
(more...)

KY Cold Case—Unknown White Male

2012-01-02T23:48:00.001-05:00

SurfKY - KY, USA

KY Cold Case—Unknown White Male

Dec 06
WESTERN KY (12/6/11)— The Kentucky State Police (KSP) investigate criminal activity across the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky, and, in many instances, the information provided by individual citizens allows law enforcement officials to make important breakthroughs in difficult cases.

With this in mind, members of the KSP Post 16 in Henderson, KY are requesting help from the public in resolving the murder investigation of an unknown white male.

As members of the KSP Post 16 report, the unidentified male in question was located approximately 2.5 miles Northwest of Philpot, KY (Daviess County) on January 7th, 1990.

The victim stood approximately 5’ 6”-5’ 7” in height and weighed 125-140 pounds. It is believed that the victim’s eyes were blue; his hair was brown.

Due the graphic nature of the evidence found at the scene, which is attached below, some readers may want to use discretion.

When located, KSP investigators found that the victim was nude, had been shot a total of six times, and that both his hands and feet were severed from his body. (more...)

Additional source: http://www.facebook.com/DaviessKYSheriff

WA mother missing for 18 years found in Fontana

2012-01-02T22:26:00.000-05:00

Judith Bello Medina

ABC Local - CA, USA

WA mother missing for 18 years found in Fontana

Friday, December 02, 2011

FONTANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A Washington state mother who vanished nearly 18 years ago has turned up safe and sound in Fontana.

A deck of cold-case playing cards promted the woman to call home out-of-the-blue.

Judith Bello vanished in 1993. The mother of two was supposed to pick up her son at daycare, but disappeared.

Her car was found abandoned at a post office and there were massive searches.

Her profile was added to a deck of cards of unsolved homicides or missing persons.

Bello spotted her card and called her relatives.

"Oh, I feel very happy, very happy. The whole family [and] friends, they're excited, you know?" said brother-in-law Isidro Bello.

Judith told relatives she left because of trouble with her husband and that she has three more children in California.

Relatives are planning to visit her in Fontana before Christmas. (more...)

University City woman's disappearance remains a cold case

2012-01-02T22:16:00.002-05:00

ST Louis Today - MO, USA

University City woman's disappearance remains a cold case

BY MARLON A. WALKER
STLtoday.com
Posted: Saturday, December 3, 2011

EAST ST. LOUIS • There is no file folder with notes detailing efforts to find Julie Adams.

The 22-year-old vanished from East St. Louis in 1988. Remains identified as hers were found by a hiker in Jefferson County a few months later.

DNA testing last year showed the remains were actually those of another long-missing woman. That revelation apparently hasn't triggered a new search for Adams.

Officials in East St. Louis say they don't even have a missing persons report on Adams. That report, if it existed, likely would describe when she was last seen, what she was wearing, who she was with and whether foul play could be suspected in her disappearance.

University City, where Adams was from, also has no report about her disappearance.

Twenty-three years after she vanished and a year after the misidentification of her remains was revealed, Adams appears to have been forgotten.

An investigator wanting to pick up her trail would face the nearly impossible task of jump-starting a missing persons case with no backstory, no family members, no witnesses and no DNA to match against if a body eventually is found. (more...)

Four decades later, student's disappearance still baffles

2012-01-01T10:16:00.000-05:00

Lynne Schulze

Burlington Free Press- VT, USA

Four decades later, student's disappearance still baffles

6:33 AM, Dec. 11, 2011

Written by
Tim Johnson, Free Press Staff Writer

Forty years ago Saturday, Middlebury College freshman Lynne Kathryn Schulze was walking to a final exam with fellow students when she announced she had to retrieve something from her dorm room. She left them to head back -- and then, inexplicably, she disappeared.

She's still missing. Yet her family and friends continue to hope for a break in her unsolved case. Nearly two generations later, they haven't given up searching for her.
"We hope to locate Lynne's remains or at least get some confirmation about her death," said Lynne's younger sister, Anne, who lives in New Hampshire. "Our family doesn't believe that Lynne is alive and suspect that she was killed or accidentally died soon after she disappeared."
Various theories have been advanced over the years about her state of mind and about what happened to her: that she was depressed or unhappy, that she was dropping out. (more...)

37-year-old Spokane cold case heats up on anniversary of teen's disappearance

2012-01-01T09:17:00.002-05:00

Laurie Partridge

NWCN - WA, USA

37-year-old Spokane cold case heats up on anniversary of teen's disappearance

by Katie Utehs
NWCN.com
Posted on December 2, 2011 at 6:24 PM

Updated Sunday, Dec 4 at 12:57 PM

SPOKANE-- Laurie Partridge was just 17 years old when she left Ferris High School in 1974 to walk home and hasn't been seen since.

KREM 2's Katie Utehs spoke with Partridge's younger sister and the detective on her case about why the case is heating up now.

There is no physical evidence, no body, and no crime scene.

Friday detectives released new witness information about her disappearance.

Detectives say a second witness may have seen Partridge on the route of her walk home.

Officials say the witness described a white male in his 40-50's near a white truck with a van back end and a darker colored door.

The witness says this happened around 4:15 p.m. several hours after an original witness report of Partridge walking home. (more...)

Cold Case: Woman vanished in 1993; it's still a mystery

2012-01-01T08:53:00.001-05:00

Anna Molina

AZStarnet - AZ, USA

Cold Case: Woman vanished in 1993; it's still a mystery

Kimberly Matas Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Anna Marie Molina disappeared after a night of partying 18 years ago.

She and a friend were bar hopping the night of Aug. 9, 1993, but the women went their separate ways after their last stop, a south-side bar then called Sunny's Pub, at 5442 S. 12th Ave.

Molina, who was wearing a floral-print dress, got a ride home from two men at about 12:30 a.m. Aug. 10, and the trio partied into the morning.

When questioned by investigators, one of the men told Tucson police he had dropped off his buddy at his home before he and Molina went for a drive. Molina, in the meantime, had called her boss at the fast-food restaurant where she worked and said she could not come in that day.

The man told police he had dropped Molina at a convenience store at South Park Avenue and East Ajo way at about 10 that morning.

Later that day, a woman in Three Points called police to report she had found Molina's purse, which still contained a small amount of cash, on the roadside near West Ajo Way and South Comanche Road about 15 miles west of downtown Tucson. (more...)

Authorities Hope To Solve Missing Persons Cases Ahead Of Holidays

2012-01-01T08:44:00.001-05:00

Darrell Wells

KTBS - LA, USA

Authorities Hope To Solve Missing Persons Cases Ahead Of Holidays

POSTED: 9:53 pm CST December 9, 2011

Christmas day will mark ten years since Darrell Wells disappeared from his Bossier City Home.

Wells' disappearance continues to haunt his family and the police department.

"Every time Christmas rolls around, they're reminded of this man being missing and not with them," said Bossier City spokesman, Mark Natale.

Another unsolved missing person case for the city is more than two decades old.

Penny Madanat was last seen twenty years ago leaving a nightclub.

"I want to get out of this nightmare that me and my family are going through...We just want to know," said Madanat's mother, Marty Butler.

Both Wells and Madanat's pictures are posted high above the traffic on Benton Road.

Authorities hope that having their images sprawled across billboards will help solve one of the unsolved cases.

If you have any information authorities encourage you to contact your local police department as soon as possible.

http://www.ktbs.com/news/29966265/detail.html

Grant Co. authorities seek help identifying dead man

2012-01-01T08:26:00.002-05:00

Seattle Times - WA, USA

Grant Co. authorities seek help identifying dead man

Posted by John de Leon on December 15, 2011 at 10:18 AM

Do you recognize this man?

Forensic artist Natalie Murray drew this sketch of a man whose skeletal remains were found by hunters Nov. 23 near O’Sullivan Dam in southeast Grant County (south of Moses Lake). Based on a forensic examination, the man is believed to be a white or Hispanic, about around 35 years old and between 5-feet-1 and 6-feet-1.

He had a single gunshot wound. Investigators believe his body had been outside for perhaps a year. His teeth were in poor condition, and silver-colored dental caps were affixed to his two front teeth. One of those teeth was broken beneath the cap.

The man was wearing multiple layered clothing when he was found, including a Phat Farm-brand long-sleeve T-shirt, Phat Farm short-sleeve T-shirt, Route 66-brand dark denim pants, a tan and orange insulated vest and black stocking cap.

Anyone with information about the man should call Detective Kim Cook with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office at 509-754-2011, ext. 471, or send information to crimetips@co.grant.wa.us. Tipsters can remain anonymous.

http://today.seattletimes.com/2011/12/grant-co-authorities-seek-help-identifying-dead-man/

Paul Kovacich Jr. loses appeal of Auburn murder conviction

2012-01-01T08:23:00.001-05:00

Janet Kovacich

Auburn Journal - CA, USA

Paul Kovacich Jr. loses appeal of Auburn murder conviction

By Gus Thomson, Journal Staff Writer

Placer Sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Kovacich Jr.’s appeal of a 2009 first-degree murder conviction for killing his wife 29 years ago has been denied by the Third District State Court of Appeals.

A written ruling issued this past week states that while several issues were raised by Kovacich’s defense team challenging the conviction in Placer County Superior Court, the court could not agree with any of the contentions.

A jury convicted Kovacich of first-degree murder in the Sept. 8, 1982, death of his wife, Janet. Both were living with their children in an Auburn home at the time she disappeared. Her body was never found. But prosecutors produced part of a skull discovered in the Rollins Lake overflow pond 13 years afterward that contained a hole jurors found had a bullet hole from a gun Kovacich fired.

Among the arguments for dismissal of the verdict were that Judge Mark Curry “committed reversible error” at trial by allowing:

n Out-of-court statements that Janet Kovacich feared the defendant

n Admitting statements made before Kovacich’s disappearance that her husband kicked the family dog to death

n Expert testimony on spousal abuse that went beyond what should have been allowed

Defense attorneys also argued that the judge erred by excluding evidence that the chief investigator harbored an alleged bias against the defendant.

The appeals court decision, which was handed down in Sacramento on Wednesday, does not end Kovacich’s attempt to reverse the verdict. But he continues to serve a 27-years-to-life prison term. (more...)

Molly Doe, 1986, KS

2011-12-31T00:30:00.002-05:00

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-LlEAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SbYMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3031,187873

I don't remember if I've already posted this. Anyway maybe some missed it.

Police checking DNA to make sure woman found in Monroe County in 1982 isn't missing Davison woman

2011-12-24T03:10:00.000-05:00

Paulette Jaster

MLive - MI, USA

Police checking DNA to make sure woman found in Monroe County in 1982 isn't missing Davison woman

Published: Friday, November 25, 2011

DAVISON, Michigan -- A long-time missing Davison woman's sister has given police investigators a fresh DNA sample as they seek to rule out the possibility that she was the same woman found dead in Monroe County nearly 30 years ago.
Paulette S. Jaster, a former honor student, homecoming queen candidate and star athlete, had developed signs of mental illness when she walked away from her parents' home in Davison on May 12, 1979.

She was never heard from again.
The unidentified woman found in Monroe County on March 31, 1982, was discovered washed ashore at the Lake Erie shoreline near the Detroit Edison Power Plant there, according to police.
Like Jaster's disappearance, the Monroe County woman's identity has remained a mystery since.
"What we are doing is just a confirmation," said Jeff Pauli, a detective with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. "I felt like we ought to go through and double-check."
Jaster's family has given DNA samples for national missing person data bases before and DNA was collected from the Monroe County Jane Doe after her body was exhumed about three years ago, Pauli said.
But the additional DNA sample from Jaster's sister Peg Sperlich is being checked to make sure there is no match between the two women because of physical similarities between the two.
(more...)

Cold case gets new look

2011-12-24T02:29:00.001-05:00

Amber Scholz

Rocket Miner - WY, USA

Cold case gets new look

RSPD examining old evidence in woman’s 1981 disappearance
By RYAN JAMES/Rocket-Miner Staff Reporter

ROCK SPRINGS -- Amber Scholz was a headstrong teenager, determined to forge her own path when she left her home in Ohio at 18 to start anew in Rock Springs. Her sister said she was generous, but had a mean streak and often associated with other rebellious spirits.

"She was no angel," said her sister, Bobbie Lenhof. "But she'd give you the shirt off her back, and she'd protect you."

The Rock Springs police said Scholz's friend drove her home from a party to her apartment on Dewar Drive on Nov. 8, 1981. No one has admitted to seeing her since.

TAKING A FRESH LOOK

The Rock Springs Police Department is reviewing evidence collected in 1981 to try to find DNA to identify a suspect. The police said they hope Scholz's friends, acquaintances or anyone with information will come forward to provide new assistance after 30 years.

Investigators have reviewed clothing, skeletal remains and dental records. So far, the investigation has not led to any suspects. (more...)

DNA test confirms serial killer victim's body misidentified

2011-12-24T02:08:00.001-05:00

Still pretty sure you can drive someone nuts just by relating them all the identifications, misidentifications, reidentifications of this mass murder.
Just a quick summary:
Michael Baulch had been misidentified and it was discovered he was a long unidentified victim instead. Which made the first remains unidentified themselves. And now they've been id'd as Roy Bunton's. Only one UID left.

ABC Local - TX, USA

DNA test confirms serial killer victim's body misidentified

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There's closure for a family nearly 40 years after their loved one died at the hands of an infamous serial killer.

When Dean Corll's dozens of victims were discovered in 1973, there was confusion and hysteria. Bodies of young men were mistakenly identified. Now, one of those wrongs has finally been righted - Roy Bunton's family knows their brother is gone. But as that mystery ends, the mourning starts.

After 38 years in the ground and 10 months in a forensic science lab, the bones of a serial killer's 1970 victim finally gave up their secret.

"I am very pleased to be able to offer this family answers," Dr. Sharon Derrick said. "Now she won't be looking for him in crowds, she won't be wondering if he came home and no one was home and he left again -- you know, all those things a loved one might do that causes you pain when you think of it."

In the early 1970s, Elmer Wayne Henley and Dean Corll kidnapped, tortured and killed 29 boys, burying them in forests, on beaches and mainly in a boathouse. It's where these remains were discovered and back then wrongly identified as Michael Baluch. Dr. Derrick discovered the error and got a rare judges order 10 months ago to dig up the bones.

After she examined them and tested them for DNA, she made the identification they were the remains of the still missing Roy Eugene Bunton. (more...)

10 years after son disappears, a Maryland mother’s grief feels fresh

2011-12-24T01:51:00.001-05:00

Harold Clifton Cooper III

Washington Post - DC, USA

10 years after son disappears, a Maryland mother’s grief feels fresh

By Matt Zapotosky, Published: November 27

Nearly 10 years after her son disappeared, Brenda Adams celebrated the man’s 30th birthday the way he would have wanted her to. Family and friends scarfed down fried chicken, his favorite food. A DJ blasted “Atomic Dog,” his favorite song.

The party was a happy distraction, an opportunity to pay tribute to the life of Harold Clifton Cooper III.

Adams’s daily reality is not so joyous.

The 49-year-old Fort Washington nurse does not celebrate the holidays. It’s too painful, she said, without her son. Even watching the news can be a struggle. When unidentified human remains are found, Adams cannot bear the thought that they might be Cooper’s.

“When I hear stuff like that, I just try to block it out,” Adams said, adding that she thinks to herself: “ ‘Oh God. I ain’t claiming that one.’ ”

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people are reported missing. Most are found as quickly as they’re lost. The runaway teenager returns home. The elderly relative wanders back.

Cooper’s case is different. (more...)

National database in Largo cracks unsolved mysteries at a rate like never before

2011-12-24T01:32:00.000-05:00

David Brennesholtz

ABC Action News - FL, USA

National database in Largo cracks unsolved mysteries at a rate like never before

Posted: 11/25/2011

• By: Alison Morrow
LARGO, Fla. - Carts packed with suitcases, covered in blankets, often decorate a sidewalk on Cleveland Street in downtown Clearwater.

The area around the Bank of America is a popular resting spot for homeless men and women.

But on a morning in March 2008, a man was found lying against the bank's wall, dead.

"We thought, for sure, we'll run his finger prints, we'll get a match on fingerprints and we'll identify this individual," said Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office Spokesman Bill Pellan.

Except, finger prints and a missing person's search turned up nothing.

Every lead, went nowhere.

So, Pinellas County buried the John Doe in an unmarked grave at Sunnyside Cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Then, his case headed to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, based in Largo.

On the day ABC Action News visited NamUs headquarters, the massive database included 8,422 cases just like man from clearwater, John and Jane Does from across the country. (more...)

'Betty Boop' murder victim from Pacifica exhumed for DNA test

2011-12-23T20:52:00.001-05:00

Mercury News - CA, USA

'Betty Boop' murder victim from Pacifica exhumed for DNA test

By Joshua Melvin

Posted: 12/01/2011 06:27:43 AM PST

Roughly 22 years after she was buried in an unmarked grave, Jane Doe No. 89-3 was pulled from the earth Wednesday morning at a Colma cemetery to try to figure out who she is.

A small crew dug up her bones from a plot among the rows of gray headstones at Olivet Memorial Park on Hillside Boulevard. Two deputy San Mateo County coroners took a femur and some teeth from Doe's grave, which were then hand-delivered to a laboratory in Richmond for DNA testing.

It's the best hope of solving the slaying of Betty Boop, as she was dubbed by police for the cartoon character on her T-shirt. When results arrive, possibly as early as three weeks from now, the mystery of her identity could finally be solved. With that basic but crucial detail in hand, investigators may finally figure out who killed her and why.

Investigators don't have a lot to go on. Although she was discovered by a hiker in a stand of trees behind 901 Oceana Blvd. in Pacifica on March 22, 1989, she had been dead much longer. She was partially decomposed and lying under a floral print bedspread when found. Pacifica police Capt. Fernando Realyvasquez said investigators believed the 25- to 30-year-old black woman was strangled somewhere else and dumped there. Catching the killer is decidedly a long shot, but not impossible. (more...)

NJSP forensic scientist's work could help solve unidentified man's murder

2011-12-23T20:41:00.000-05:00

Cliffview Pilot - NJ, USA

NJSP forensic scientist's work could help solve unidentified man's murder

Monday, 28 November 2011 23:18 Jerry DeMarco
ONLY ON CLIFFVIEW PILOT: Authorities have a DNA sample from a murder victim whose body was found in the Passaic River three years ago, records show. CLIFFVIEW PILOT also has the sharpest images of both the man’s face and an extremely distinguishing mark.

It's all the work of New Jersey State Police Forensic Anthropologist Donna Fontana, whose work has been featured on "America's Most Wanted" and elsewhere.

Late last week, Fontana issued a revised report on the 38- to 48-year-old man, whose naked body washed up on July 21, 2008.

Authorities also issued a photo of a distinguishing mark – a tattoo on his left chest that says "Lyniol,” “Lynios” or “Lynias.”

He was also missing most of his teeth before he died, the report says.

An online report published by a Bergen County daily newspaper says the man was “believed to be either a white or Hispanic male in his 30s or 40s. He had black hair and a receding hairline and was believed to be about 5-foot-10 in height and weighing 150 to 180 pounds….”

In fact, he was a much smaller man – 5’7 ½” and weighted 140 pounds, according to Fontana’s report (available at https://identifyus.org/cases/2265). He had brown eyes, brown hair and a salt-and-pepper goatee, it says. (more...)

Melanson's remains not found during search

2011-12-23T20:29:00.003-05:00

Melanie Melanson

Homenewshere - MA, USA

Melanson's remains not found during search

Posted: Friday, December 2, 2011 12:40 pm | Updated: 1:55 pm, Mon Dec 5, 2011.

Melanson's remains not found during search 0 comments

WOBURN - Local and State Police were not able to locate any remains of a missing Woburn teen during a search of an area of East Woburn on Thursday.

"If we found anything, we'd still be there (today)," said Woburn Police Capt. John Murphy.

Authorities were seen digging with shovels near the property line of McDonalds on Montvale Avenue late Thursday morning in search for any evidence connected to Melanie Melanson, who was last seen at a party in Woburn in 1989.

The area, a narrow wooded strip of land with some wetlands, is situated between the fast-food restaurant and the Kraft Foods plant, which is clearly visible from the eatery's parking lot. (more...)

Gacy: The Unknown Eight

2011-12-23T18:36:00.002-05:00

One has been id'd why only 7 descriptions but I put the 8 pics since I have no clue which is the identified boy's.

ABCLocal - IL, USA

Gacy: The Unknown Eight

Tuesday, November 22, 2011
John Garcia

November 21, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- An inside look at the Texas lab where efforts are under way to solve the mystery surrounding eight unidentified victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Gacy was executed in 1994 for the murders of 33 young men. Investigators were only able to identify 25 of those victims.

Gacy took with him to the grave any information that might have helped authorities learn more about the other eight, but now, a lab in Fort Worth, Texas may finally provide answers.

Police in 1978 had the horrific task of pulling bodies from the crawl space and other areas around Gacy's home: bodies of young boys whom Gacy had lured with the promise of a job or by using a badge.

The so-called "clown killer" would eventually be convicted of killing 33 people, most of whom investigators identified using dental records, the most sophisticated method available at the time. That worked for all but eight victims who remain unidentified to this day.

Now, in the heart of cowboy country, Fort Worth, Texas, researchers are working to help Chicago-area families find long-awaited answers.

The University of North Texas Health Science Center is using some of the most sophisticated DNA identification technology in the world to try to learn the names of those final eight victims.

"[It's] not so much that it was high-profile serial killer, but the fact is these families have gone this long without knowing," said Dr. Arthur Eisenberg of University of North Texas Health Sciences.

This summer, the Cook County Sheriff's Office exhumed the bodies to extract DNA samples. The bodies are more than three decades old, and DNA decomposes along with the rest of the body. The samples are microscopic. There is no lab in Illinois capable of doing this work.

"Without the university coming forward like they did... I don't know how we would have done this," said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. (more...)

Jewelry located on the crime scene, most probably identified, just posting in case some could belong to the UIDs

Letters from murder victim may hold clues

2011-12-23T16:58:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately I don't think this letter is of any help. This is a rather typical teen letter. Looks like Sarah might have hitchhiked and was killed.

Sarah Boehm

Times Online - PA, USA

Letters from murder victim may hold clues

Posted: Thursday, November 17, 2011
By Kristen Doerschner

More than 17 years after a Rochester Township teenager was found dead in Ohio, the Beaver County District Attorney's office has released new information in Sarah Rae Boehm's death.

The full text of a mysterious letter -- or more likely letters, according to District Attorney Anthony Berosh -- written by Boehm has been released to media.

The original letters, written in four different types of ink, are in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A portion of the letter details how Boehm -- who was 14 when she went missing -- felt she was a burden on her family and that she was forgotten in the midst of other family problems. She wrote about wanting to leave to be on her own and take care of herself. She referenced going somewhere like Washington, D.C., or New York City to become a cardiologist or a musician.

Perhaps most tellingly, she wrote about meeting a man who gave her "love" and "whatever else I was not getting at home" but who was also abusive and caused her physical injuries.

Investigators do not know the identity of the abusive man Boehm referenced.

Berosh said he believes the letters are Boehm trying to convey something, but investigators need help determining what.

"Sarah is speaking, and we're listening," Berosh said. "The real point of the matter now is: Does someone know what she's saying?" (more...)

Ruby ring may hold clue to 1977 disappearance of heiress

2011-12-23T16:47:00.001-05:00

Helen Brach

Chicago Tribune - IL, USA

Ruby ring may hold clue to 1977 disappearance of heiress

Jewel purportedly taken from Helen Brach now sits in Glenview police vault

By Cynthia Dizikes, Chicago Tribune reporter

November 25, 2011
The ruby ring sits in a vault at the Glenview Police Department, an ornate piece of metal and stone that some investigators believe proves how candy heiress Helen Vorhees Brach was murdered.

Brach, a former hat-check girl and country club hostess, married into fortune when she tied the knot with Frank Brach, the onetime head of E.J. Brach & Sons Inc. After he died in 1970, Helen Brach was estimated to be worth $7 million to $100 million. In addition to her 18-room mansion on a 7-acre estate in Glenview, Brach had a farm retreat in Ohio and a $170,000 condominium apartment in Florida.

But on Feb. 21, 1977, she disappeared, plunging Chicago-area law enforcement into one of its highest-profile murder mysteries.

Brach, 65, was reported last seen by her houseman Jack Matlick, who said he left her at O'Hare International Airport to board a flight to Florida.

The hunt for Brach continued for years while law enforcement officers tracked down intersecting leads that led them to Matlick and a clan of criminal horsemen associated with Brach's friend Richard Bailey.

In 1984, her body never found, Brach was legally declared dead. More than 10 years later, Bailey was sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiring to kill her. Prosecutors argued that he and several others in the horse business would hoodwink wealthy women into paying inflated prices for show horses.

They said that Bailey planned to kill Brach because he feared she had found out about being cheated and planned to tell authorities. (more...)

Mother of missing girl writes book

2011-12-23T16:32:00.000-05:00

Jennifer Marteliz

Land O'Lakes - FL, USA

Mother of missing girl writes book

Submitted by Kathryn Bursch, Reporter
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011, 6:12pm

Land O'Lakes, Florida - Everywhere she goes, Kathy Longo carries a suitcase filled with heartache.

"This I call Jennifer's Bible," she remarks, pulling out a notebook.

The suitcase is jam-packed with hand-written notes, files and newspapers clippings all related to the 1982 disappearance of her daughter Jennifer Marteliz. The 7-year-old vanished from a Tampa street as she walked home from school.

"I'll never let go, I'm not going to let go," says Longo.

For nearly three decades, Longo has kept Jennifer's teddy bear. "He stays with me in the car all the time," she says holding the brown bear.

She's also kept the hope that her daughter is still alive. An aged progressed photo shows what Jennifer may look like now and for Longo, the image is haunting.

"It's very sad that I've missed all these years without her, but she's a beautiful woman and I'm hoping I have grandchildren," says Longo, her voice breaking with emotion. (more...)

Mystery of Bethany Bones still unresolved

2011-12-22T02:20:00.002-05:00

The Times Tribune - PA, USA

Mystery of Bethany Bones still unresolved

by steve mcconnell (staff writer)Published: November 20, 2011

HONESDALE - She was laid to rest in late summer in an old cemetery along the banks of Dyberry Creek.

There was no family to say final farewells, no friends holding hands in prayer, not even a real name to carve into her headstone or stamp on the cover of the cold case file that contains everything that is known about "Jane Doe 1977."

That sad biographical tidbit etched on her new granite tombstone is the lone identity investigators have been able to attach to the fragmented remains that were kept for nearly three decades in a filing cabinet at a Honesdale photography shop owned by a former county coroner. A state trooper, Wayne County commissioner and coroner tossed dirt onto the unidentified woman's casket at a special interment ceremony on Sept. 3 meant to give her the dignity of a proper burial - 34 years after her bones were found several miles north of the cemetery.

"I just thought it was the respectful thing to do," Commissioner Wendell R. Kay said. "Nobody knew who she was."

Jimmy Hoffa's remains?

The skeletal remains hunters stumbled upon in thick brush off a road near Bethany, Wayne County on Oct. 24, 1977, are an incomplete puzzle that has confounded scores of investigators. What came to be known as "the Bethany Bones" were even mistaken for the never-recovered remains of Jimmy Hoffa, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters president who was last seen in a parking lot outside a suburban Detroit restaurant in 1975.

"The teeth were so close to Hoffa's that the FBI jumped on it right away," then-Wayne County Coroner Robert F. Jennings said in a recent interview. "There was so many gold fillings. It had to be somebody that was very wealthy." (more...)

Old articles:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=N7wyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0OsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4533,3375122

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fK0tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=m38FAAAAIBAJ&pg=3488,4844979

The Mystery of The Hanging Man in Pendleton County

2011-12-21T21:00:00.000-05:00

Local12 - KY, USA

The Mystery of The Hanging Man in Pendleton County

A teenager comes face to face with a rotting corpse swinging from a tree in Pendleton County. Fifteen years later, no one knows how the dead man got there or who he is. The community is left with a lot of uncomfortable and unanswered questions. Local 12's Rich Jaffe recently went to Pendleton County trying to put a face on the hanging man.

The hills and hollers of Pendleton County are so rugged they hold a lot of secrets... but none more troubling than the mystery of the hanging man. He was discovered on July 6, 1996, on a remote piece of property between Butler and Falmouth. His feet were dangling only a few inches from a creek when 16 year old Tom King came face to face with the real life nightmare that still haunts him. "Basically walked down in the creek, kept my head down... walking straight, dog was up on the hill a little bit, I just happened to raise up-right here in front of me... I was this far away. I just backed up. For a minute you did not believe it."

It was the almost mummified corpse of a Hispanic man suspended from a single strand of fence wire around his neck. King ran for help. "I was actually white as a ghost and couldn't speak."

Sheriff Craig Peoples was a young deputy on the scene. "Where did he come from? Who is he? All the things that go through your mind. How did he get there? Cause you're down over a hill, pretty good hill...pretty good sized creek, so it's a lot of questions." (more...)

Evidence being reprocessed in mother's disappearance 26 years ago

2011-12-21T20:38:00.000-05:00

Vernette Wester

AZFamily - AZ, USA

Evidence being reprocessed in mother's disappearance 26 years ago

by Sybil Hoffman
azfamily.com
Posted on November 22, 2011

PHOENIX -- For more than two decades, a Valley family has been haunted by the disappearance of their mother and the suspicion their father killed her. Now 26 years after she vanished, Phoenix detectives discuss how science may help solve the crime.

Vernette Wester's daughter won't give up on her mother.

"I want a place where I know she is, where she deserves to be, she deserves a decent burial," Wendy Rawson said. "She deserves more than what she got, and what she got was discarded like she was garbage."

Vernette was only 38 years old when she disappeared on Nov. 22, 1985.

"I had just turned 12 and now I'm 38 and that's how old my mom was," Wendy said.

Vernette was last seen visiting her ex-husband, Bruce, at his Parkside Drive Home in Tempe. Her white '79 Chevette was found just a few blocks away near West Howe and Judd Street. The car was locked yet none of Vernette's things were inside. (more...)

20th Anniversary of Himebaugh disappearance approaches

2011-12-21T19:58:00.000-05:00

Mark Himebaugh

NBC40 - NJ, USA

20th Anniversary of Himebaugh disappearance approaches

Josh Sims - 11/22/11 11:35 pm

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - A press conference was held Tuesday afternoon just days before the 20th anniversary of the disappearance of Middle Township resident Mark Himebaugh.

The press conference was held at the Cape May County Prosecutors Office and was geared toward updating the public on information that may help with finding Mark Himebaugh.

Maureen Himebaugh looked at photographs of her son Mark after Tuesday's press conference as she reminisced on the nearly 20 years it's been since she last saw him.

"I can remember that day like it was yesterday, I can see him, I can feel him, he hugged me that day," said Maureen.

That day was November 22, 1991. Her son Mark went missing after he did not return from playing in the neighborhood near his Del Haven home in Middle Township.

"What happened is those hours went into days, those days into weeks, weeks into months, and now months into years," Maureen said. (more...)

Cold Case Closer to Being Solved

2011-12-21T17:15:00.000-05:00

Volunteer TV - USA

Posted: 11:44 PM Nov 23, 2011

Cold Case Closer to Being Solved

With the help of a UT forensic artist a 19 year old cold case is closer to being solved.
Reporter: Alan Williams

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Joanna Hughes is a forensic artist. She's the only one in the country: A sculptress with a love for the macabre.

Out of 15 mysteries, she's helped police around the country identify at least 5 people. Her latest, a 19 year old cold case.

Jeff Day of the Knoxville Police Department's Cold Case team remembers the 1992 date well.

"September the 26th, around 10 in the morning, they located a body in the Tennessee river."

It was between Calhouns Restaurant and the now South Knoxville bridge.

Police reports said the man was either Hispanic or Native American, long hair with a goatee, stubble on his cheeks, wearing only his underwear.

Day said, "No trauma found on the body, they did find a hematoma or a bruise on his head."

It was determined this John Doe died accidentally, but so badly decomposed, he couldn't be identified.

With no more information to go on, Joanna begins to mold a face around numbered white dots.

"The markers are based on averages from certain points on the skull, for instance we say white male, taken from a bunch of different white males in the same spot. When you layer all the clay on, you have to know what muscles are underneath it , so if you want to make a smile, you have to know what muscles are used in a smile."

With every piece of clay, a picture is taken. (more...)

Investigators try to identify victims of unsolved killings

2011-12-21T17:02:00.000-05:00

Click2Houston - TX, USA

Investigators try to identify victims of unsolved killings

Published On: nov. 21 2011

HOUSTON - There are many unsolved killings in the Houston area, and many of the victims have not been identified.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences is exhuming 25 of nearly 400 bodies without names to try again to identify them.

In 1981, two nude bodies, torn to pieces, were found two blocks apart along Wallisville Road in an area known as Lovers' Lane.

The victims, a man and a woman appeared to be about 25 years old and 5 feet 6 inches tall with brown hair. The man was white the woman may have been Native American.

Investigators said it is not clear how or why they were killed.

Detectives said they do not know if the man and woman knew each other.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences has several victims it is trying to identify.

A Hispanic man between the ages of 25 and 35 was found stabbed to death at 6500 Rusk on Jan. 18th, 2009. Investigators said the man was last seen leaving the El Cassanova Bar at 7036 Harrisburg. He was about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 166 pounds. When his body was discovered, he was wearing a blue Paco Jeans brand short-sleeved shirt with orange and white horizontal stripes, Old Navy jeans and Gortex brand orange and grey colored athletic shoes. (more...)

Renowned crime writer re-examines local cold case

2011-12-21T16:48:00.000-05:00

Joann Hansen

KOMO News - WA, USA

Renowned crime writer re-examines local cold case

By Elisa Jaffe Published: Nov 23, 2011 at 8:57 PM PST

SEATTLE -- For nearly 50 years, the screams of her best friend on their last phone call have haunted Patricia Martin.

That best friend, Joann Hansen, had planned to meet her mother and sisters at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, but she never showed.

"They waited for her, and had her paged," said crime writer Ann Rule.

The missing mother of three had been trying to leave an abusive marriage.

"(Her husband was) probably one of the meanest men ever written about, and that's saying a lot," Rule said.

Hansen had filed for divorce and a restraining order against her husband.

"So we hid her car and she stayed at my house," said Martin. "She was like a sister to me."

After a time, Hansen was convinced it'd be OK for her to head home since her husband wasn't allowed inside. Martin called to check on her.

"We talked for a second and then she went, 'Oh wait.' I said, 'What's the matter?' (She said,) 'He's coming. He's here. He's coming up the stairs.' And I said, 'No, he isn't.'

"And she started screaming. And the phone went dead, and I never heard from her again."

"And from that day to this, nobody is sure where Joann is," Rule said. "(She) never would have left her children. She adored her children." (more...)

Detectives retrieve Weflen’s locker items

2011-12-21T08:01:00.000-05:00

Julie Ann Weflen

Spokesman-Review - WA, USA

November 23, 2011 in City

Detectives retrieve Weflen’s locker items

Contents photographed and put into evidence
By Jody Lawrence-Turner The Spokesman-Review

Despite the passing of nearly 25 years, the disappearance of Bonneville Power Administration employee Julie Weflen has apparently never been far from people’s minds.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office still fields one or two tips per year, Sgt. Bill Beeman said Tuesday. “They are followed up on, and they lead nowhere,” Beeman said.

But sheriff’s detectives have higher hopes for the most recent tip, from a group of Weflen’s co-workers.

On Tuesday, detectives retrieved items BPA workers found in a padlocked locker Weflen kept at BPA’s G.H. Bell Substation and Maintenance Complex in Mead. Former co-workers think the locker has been left untouched since her disappearance in 1987, until a recent remodel when the padlock was cut off.

Authorities won’t say what they found in the dark-colored storage bin Tuesday; the items were photographed and taken into evidence.

“We may find something in there that will lead us to a person to talk to,” Beeman said. “It could lead to more witnesses.”

Weflen went missing about 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 16, 1987. She was one of three women who disappeared during an 18-month period in the mid-1980s whose disappearances are unsolved. (more...)

Woman visiting Md. disappeared in 1981

2011-12-21T07:21:00.000-05:00

Kathryn Quackenbush

Washington Examiner - DC, USA

Woman visiting Md. disappeared in 1981

By: Emily Babay | 11/22/11 8:05 PM
Examiner Staff Writer | Follow her: @emilybabay
.A Georgia woman visiting relatives in Maryland disappeared in July 1981 and has never been seen again.
Kathryn Mae Quackenbush was 17 years old when she and her brother went to the Delmar area in Wicomico County to see their father.

On July 14, 1981, she planned to go to a bowling alley in Salisbury with her boyfriend, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. When her boyfriend was a few minutes late picking her up, she apparently started walking south along Route 13.

The boyfriend arrived about five minutes after she left, according to NamUs.

But Quackenbush could not be located and was reported missing.

Authorities have said foul play is suspected in her disappearance, but no suspects have ever been publicly named.

Quackenbush would be 47 years old now.

At the time she went missing, Quackenbush was described as white, about 5 feet 2 inches tall and about 105 pounds, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She had blond hair and blue eyes.

She did not have any distinctive tattoos or piercings and it's not known what clothing she was last wearing.

Anyone with information about her disappearance is asked to call the Maryland Center for Missing Children at 800-MDS-KIDS (637-5437).

ebabay@washingtonexaminer.com

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime-punishment/2011/11/woman-visiting-md-disappeared-1981

Long missing Piqua teen identified as homicide victim

2011-12-21T01:39:00.000-05:00

Peggy Houser

Dayton Daily News - OH, USA

Long missing Piqua teen identified as homicide victim

Updated 2:26 PM Wednesday, November 16, 2011

PIQUA — The long saga of Peggy Sue Houser, the Piqua teen who went missing in 1981 and was never seen again, has ended, her sister said Wednesday.

Her body was recently identified by police. It appears she is a homicide victim, said Karen Wood, 51, of Sidney. A DNA test on a body found in Hillsborough County Florida in 1982 has proven the identity. The body had been buried as “Jane Doe.”

After being informed by police, “initially, I cried,” Wood said. “And then, I knew she was dead all these many years. Now, I know where she is at. Now we can try to put her to peace with her real name on her.”

The Peggy Houser mystery began on June 14, 1981. Houser, 18, was with friends inside a Tampa, Fla., bar called The B-52 near McDill Air Force Base.

Over the course of the evening, she got angry with her friends and walked outside, sticking her thumb out to passing vehicles to hitch a ride. (more...)

'Killing Fields' victims' DNA to be extracted, may help lead to their identities

2011-12-21T01:09:00.000-05:00

ABC Local - TX, USA

'Killing Fields' victims' DNA to be extracted, may help lead to their identities

Monday, November 07, 2011
Adela Uchida
LEAGUE CITY, TX (KTRK) -- There's new hope for investigators trying to learn the identities of two women whose bodies were found dumped in what has become notoriously known as the Killing Fields. We're talking about an area just west of Interstate 45 on Calder Road, where the bodies of four women were discovered in the 80's, and 90's.

The field at Calder Road and Ervin has changed since the four women were found there in the 1980s and 1990s. It now has a fence and some buildings. Half of the victims were never identified, but that too could change soon.

At the League City Police Department, a decades-old oversight is now corrected.

"Our fault, but we rectified that by having the bones taken to North Texas. DNA is going to be extracted. The girls are going to be fed into CODIS," League City Det. Morton Grant said.

The DNA from the two never-identified murder victims from the notorious League City "Killing Fields" will soon be entered into a national database, and investigators hope they will soon be identified.

"It just gives us a whole other area to investigate who the girls are, where they're from, who they're around," Grant said. (more...)

Parma police seeking information on woman missing since 1990

2011-12-21T00:55:00.001-05:00

Elaine Johnson

Cleveland.com - OH, USA

Parma police seeking information on woman missing since 1990

Published: Thursday, November 17, 2011
By Sun News staff Parma Sun Post

PARMA -- Police are requesting assistance regarding a person missing from the city since December 1990.

On Dec. 3, 1990, police received a call regarding a missing person, Elaine Johnson, born in 1949. Johnson lived at 5934 Stumph Road, in Kimberly Park Apartments. Her daughter, Jodi, had received a call from her mother's employer that Johnson had not been at work for two days. Jodi checked her mother's apartment but her mother was not there.

The investigation revealed that the apartment was in order and nothing was missing. Johnson's car was found in the parking lot. Johnson's family found her wallet containing her money, identification and credit cards in her apartment. Johnson's clothes were found in the building’s laundry room and her laundry locker was open. Only her apartment keys were missing.

Johnson was reportedly last seen by her ex-boyfriend, Brian Sachs, 56, of Parma, on Nov. 30, 1990 while in the laundry room of the apartment building. Sachs was questioned at the time but has since stopped cooperating with detectives. (more...)

Putting a face on a demanding job

2011-12-21T00:10:00.000-05:00

Oregon City News Online - OR, USA

Putting a face on a demanding job

Old-school tools and technology help sketch artist reconstruct faces

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Oregon City News, Nov 16, 2011, Updated Nov 16, 2011

[...]The mountain man
One specific case makes her sad — that of the Mountain Man. His decomposed body was found in 2002 on the Pacific Crest Trail, near Mount Washington in Linn County. He had money in his pocket, a tent and plenty of equipment. The case was forwarded to Nagy last year.

“There was no damage to his bones and all that was left of his face was his left eyebrow, which had red, gray and blonde hair. I left his eyebrow on and put a face on him,” Nagy said, adding that she could then produce several versions of his face by Photoshopping in a small beard or leaving him clean shaven.

A story about the Mountain Man appeared on TV, but he has never been identified; her photos of his reconstructed face have been posted on The Doe Network, an international website for unidentified or missing persons.
Nagy began her career with the sheriff’s office in 1992 as a jail-booking technician. In 2001, she began attending school to get her certification as a forensic artist. She was certified in May 2003, and promoted the next month to her job as a forensic artist. (more...)

Police looking for serial killer link to Daly City cold case slaying

2011-12-20T23:36:00.000-05:00

Mercury News - CA, USA

Police looking for serial killer link to Daly City cold case slaying

By Joshua Melvin

Posted: 11/09/2011

DALY CITY -- Police are looking into whether the 24-year-old cold-case slaying of a woman whose identity remains a mystery could have been committed by suspected serial killer Joseph Naso.

After news of Naso's arrest spread in April, Daly City police Detective Gregg Oglesby noticed similarities between the unsolved killing of a woman found along a roadside and the alleged victims of Naso. The Jane Doe appears to have been strangled, had drugs in her blood and may have been living on the street in an era when police believe Naso, 77, was on the hunt.

Police say the four known victims were prostitutes who had been strangled in the 1970s and 1990s. The four women -- Roxene Roggasch, Pamela Parsons, Carmen Colon and Tracy Tafoya -- were found dumped in rural areas around Northern California. His arrest set police in many Bay Area agencies digging through unsolved killings in search of a link. So far none has led to additional criminal charges.

Oglesby said in the coming months he will send all the physical evidence from Jane Doe's 1987 killing to the San Mateo County crime lab for testing. If DNA not belonging to the victim is found, the detective will use that evidence to get a subpoena for Naso's DNA.

Jane Doe, who appeared to be 25 to 30 years old, was discovered Jan. 11, 1987, by two men crossing San Bruno Avenue near Vale Street in Daly City. (more...)

New criterias for featured articles

2011-12-20T23:19:00.003-05:00

I had mentionned that but just to officalize it I am now only featuring missing persons cases older than a decade. Meanwhile I've decided to feature more recent uid cases as long as they have pics.
So for missing it's about 1800's to 2001 and uids 1800's to 3 months old if they have a large estimated date of death.
I rarely ever feature unsolved homicides now, too many for me to do that too unless it's one of the two previous categories who has turned into unsolved homicide.
Also now I no longer feature recent simple "skeletal remains" findings. I mean articles relating the discovery of bones with no furter details.

Just wanted to tell you what you can expect on this blog. :)

Sheriff still seeks ID on campground 'John Doe'

2011-12-20T23:15:00.000-05:00

Verde News - AZ, USA

11/8/2011 2:04:00 PM

Sheriff still seeks ID on campground 'John Doe'

Do you know this person?

BEAVER CREEK - The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office is still attempting to identify the body of a man found by hikers near the Beaver Creek Campground on Aug. 30. A sketch artist has completed a portrait of the man's face with the hope someone may recognize him from the sketch. The medical examiner has ruled manner of death as natural with heart disease as the cause of death.

The man was found by hikers near the Beaver Creek Campground, east of Interstate 17 at the State Route 179 off ramp. The man had no identification on his person or among his property.

Investigation so far revealed the man was in Flagstaff on Saturday, Aug. 27. A cab driver transported the subject from the Amtrak Station in Flagstaff to the Beaver Creek Campground area with a stop at the Weber's IGA store in the Village of Oak Creek. (more...)

Expert Reconstructs UnIdentified Devore 'John Doe'

2011-12-20T23:11:00.000-05:00

KTLA - CA, USA

Expert Reconstructs UnIdentified Devore 'John Doe'

Officials hope sculpture will lead to the homicide victim's identification.

KTLA News

5:45 p.m. PST, November 22, 2011
DEVORE, Calif. (KTLA) -- San Bernardino County Sheriff's officials released a photo Tuesday of an unidentified victim of a homicide whose dead body was found buried in 2008.

A Devore man found skeletal remains July 7, 2008 inside a buried metal container while he was digging on his property on Keenbrook Road in Devore. Coroner's officials believe the man was killed and buried sometime between 1989 and 1998. He still has not been identified.

Sheriff's cold case detectives contacted Gloria L. Nusse, a facial reconstruction expert from San Francisco University, to reconstruction the victim's face in sculpture form. Officials released photos of the sculpture, hoping the public will recognize the man and help them identify him.

Detectives believe he was a white man born between 1955 and 1973, standing between 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall. He wore black denim Union Bay pants and white and blue Converse shoes.

Officials have not released the cause of the man's death.

Anyone with information on the homicide case or the identity of the victim is urged to call detectives Greg Myler or Ryan For or Sgt. Carlos A. Espinoza at 909-387-3589.

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-facial-sculpture-of-devore-homicide-victim,0,237281.story

Police Attempt to ID "Final 48" Grim Sleeper Photos

2011-12-19T23:53:00.001-05:00

NBC Los Angeles - CA, USA

Police Attempt to ID "Final 48" Grim Sleeper Photos

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck brings photos and a pledge to South L.A.
By Beverly White and Bill French

Thursday, Nov 3, 2011 Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck and his detectives went to Bethel AME Church in South Los Angeles with a difficult task that they are determined to complete.

The 48 photos they brought to the church could well be images of the Grim Sleeper's victims. Nobody wants to see those photos and recognize the women they show. But Beck says his department won't quit looking.

Laverne Peters knows what it's like to find out she lost a loved one. Her daughter, Alicia, was one of the victims.

"She was, I think, the last victim," said Peters. "She was found murdered on January first, 2007," Peters said.

The photo array of 48 unidentified women who may be additional victims was there for all to see.

"It took a long, long time," said LAPD Detective Dennis Kilcoyne. "The families over here have suffered immensely. Once again we're coming to you for help. We're coming to the media, coming to anyone who happens to watch the news tonight."

"A few months ago, to have 180 some odd unidentified photos, to get down to where there's only 48 and to understand that, that comes from community folks that are willing to step forward," said District 8 City Councilman Bernard Parks. (more...)

Murder Trial With Mystery Victim Set To Begin

2011-12-19T23:16:00.000-05:00

Unidentified victim

WLKY - KY, USA

Murder Trial With Mystery Victim Set To Begin

By Drew Douglas/WLKY

POSTED: 5:25 pm EDT October 28, 2011

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Jury selection for a capital murder trial involving the death of an unidentified Hispanic man started Friday.

Johnathon Downs, 21, and Keith Fowler, 22, are being tried for the slaying on Quest Drive in December 2009.

Cedrick Johnson, 28, was expected to be the third defendant, but he cut a plea deal with prosecutors Friday morning.

Click Like For Louisville News Updates:
"To this date we still don't know who this individual is," said Lt. Barry Wilkerson of Metro Police.

Nearly two years after it happened, investigators still don't know the identity of a man who was shot and killed at the Preston Oaks Apartments on Quest Drive.

"In this case we did have some identification and some different forms of documentation, but in this we believe that they weren't legitimate," Wilkerson said.

Four weeks after the man's death, police took Johnson, Fowler, Downs and Ashley Marshall into custody. (more...)

Bay City Cold Cases: The 1997 disappearance of Steven Clark

2011-12-19T23:07:00.000-05:00

Steven Clark

MLive - MI, USA

Bay City Cold Cases: The 1997 disappearance of Steven Clark

Published: Tuesday, November 15, 2011
By Cole Waterman
The Bay City Times The Bay City Times

BAY CITY — If Steven A. Clark is still alive, somewhere out there, he’d be 40 years old. Unfortunately, if anyone has seen the former Bay City resident alive in the past 14 years, they aren’t talking.

Clark’s disappearance is one of four high-profile cold cases the Bay City Police Department is hoping will garner new leads after summaries of the files were published on the department’s Facebook page.

Clark was reported missing July 22, 1997. He was 26 at the time and was last seen walking near Veterans Memorial Bridge in the early morning hours. He and a friend, Christopher W. Cushway, had spent the previous night drinking on the West Side of the city and decided to stop by a party store across the river to buy more liquor. On the way, they suffered a flat tire after hitting a curb. (more...)